The Restaurant Association of South Africa (Rasa) says it is in talks with the government over relaxing the overnight curfew and to get clarity on the operations of pubs in the country.
The restaurant association says some establishments in the country are blatantly flouting the overnight curfew and lockdown regulations and there needs to be more law enforcement on the issue.
The country is currently on alert Level 2 of the nationwide lockdown with a curfew in place from 10pm to 4am daily.
Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said that the flouting of regulations, directions, and protocols will lead to these businesses losing their licenses as it endangers the safety of their customers and workers.
Restaurants may operate within strict hygiene and social distancing protocols.
Rasa CEO Wendy Alberts says there is chaos in the industry when the curfew begins.
Alberts says, “You know we are so close to moving through to Level 1 and we are having discussions about lifting the curfew and lifting the restrictions within the pubs and bars. They feel very discriminated, they are only allowed 50 people. There’s a lot of issues that curfew has, what we find is that sort of between ten to ten (21:50) and ten past ten (22:10) – it’s a mad hour out there – all the little motorbikes are rushing to get their last deliveries, they are trying to get back to the shops to drop their motorbikes off. We’ve got public transport trying to get staff home that don’t have private transport, we’ve got people who quickly down their drinks because they want to get home and not get into trouble – so it creates a sense of madness.”
Rasa pleads with its members to be compliant following a warning from the Tourism Department
