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Restaurant industry calls on Ramaphosa to lift ban on the sale of alcohol

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The restaurant industry has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to lift the ban on the sale of alcohol and offer financial support to the affected businesses.

The call comes ahead of Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on Sunday night on government’s response to the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic.

The adjusted alert level four lockdown restrictions allow restaurants to trade until 9 pm with a maximum of 50 patrons.

CEO of the Restaurant Association, Wendy Alberts says the industry is losing revenue from the limited operating hours and ban on the sale of alcohol.

 

She added that government needs to offer financial support to the affected business.

“We’re suffering as an industry, not through a lack of excellent operators,  but through the lack of financial support that government needs to give us in order to keep the industry in a survival state and we’re calling for the restrictions to be immediately lifted,” says Alberts.

Alberts says the ban needs to be completely lifted.

We need our dinner time trade to be reinstated and we certainly need alcohol to be served as our key component. We’ve also called for the scientific evidence and we’ve also asked for clarification on how they draw outlines for the curfew and how they get to the limited numbers of 50,” says Alberts.

Video: SA restaurants allowed to sell food for delivery and take away only

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