{"id":15771,"date":"2011-01-15T12:10:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T10:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=15771"},"modified":"2011-07-01T21:08:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T19:08:36","slug":"controversial-liquor-trading-by-law-still-on-ice-intimidated-by-legal-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/controversial-liquor-trading-by-law-still-on-ice-intimidated-by-legal-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial Liquor Trading By-Law still on ice, intimidated by legal threat!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday\u00a0the controversial Western Cape Liquor\u00a0Amendment Bill<\/a><\/strong><\/span> was to have been fully gazetted, and\u00a0be\u00a0enforceable, but this has been held back, due to threatened legal action.<\/p>\n

The Liquor Trading Days and Hours By-Law has attracted the wrath of the members of the newly-formed Club, Bar and Restaurant Association of the Western Cape, who contributed\u00a0money to a legal fund to fight the By-Law by means of an interdict, reports the Cape Times.<\/strong>\u00a0 The association is looking to get 100 members on board, to have a large enough legal resource of about R1 million\u00a0to “put these guys to bed”,\u00a0said Shaan Nordien of the Chrome Club, and has invited restaurants\u00a0and hotels to join them in their fight.\u00a0 The first step will be to apply for an interdict from the court, whereafter the association will challenge the constitutionality of the By-Law, says\u00a0the association’s\u00a0legal advisor Zeeshan Nordien.\u00a0 An interesting development, demonstrating the seriousness of the association members, is the appointment of specialist liquor lawyer Danie Cronje of Cluver Markotter, with Jan Heunis as the advocate, reports the Cape Times.<\/strong>\u00a0 They have sent a letter with their grievances to the City of Cape Town, which it has decided to study first before going ahead with gazetting the By-Law.\u00a0 A protest march has not been excluded.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Association is claiming that\u00a0up to\u00a0150000 jobs could be lost\u00a0due to\u00a0the potential loss of business caused by the new Liquor Trading By-law, reports The Times<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A potential new change to the By-Law could be a “cooling off period” for drinkers, which would allow establishments such as pubs, bars and restaurants selling alcohol to\u00a0allow their patrons to stay on at the establishment, serving them coffee, but disallowing the sale of alcohol, after 2h00, so that the drinkers are in a fitter state to drive home, reports the Cape Argus<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 JP Smith, the City of Cape Town Councillor and Mayco member for Safety and Security, said:\u00a0 “This would mean that patrons’ liquor consumption stops some time before they leave the establishment – and that would be good”.\u00a0\u00a0 Smith has warned the rebelling club and bar owners that the new By-Law will be implemented across the board, and accused them of ‘profiteering off liquor abuse”, the newspaper reports.\u00a0\u00a0 “We have always known that people who profiteer off the sale of liquor will not want to give that up.\u00a0 But we will sit it out, because of how important this is.\u00a0\u00a0 Those that protest about the new trading hours are not the ones paying the hospitals, or the ambulances, or the emergency services.\u00a0 They’re\u00a0not the ones having to pick up the pieces that result from alcohol abuse.\u00a0 They’re looking at their profits”, he added.<\/p>\n

Smith said that the City would target the establishments receiving the most complaints in terms of noise level and fighting.\u00a0\u00a0 The By-Law will rely on customer complaints for its implementation to be effective.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 1\/7<\/strong>: The Cape Times <\/strong>has reported that the Liquor by-law has been reviewed by a ‘constitutional expert, following the outcry from the hospitality industry prior to its introduction earlier this year.\u00a0 The review will lead to as yet undisclosed changes to the bylaw.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0 Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u00a0the controversial Western Cape Liquor\u00a0Amendment Bill was to have been fully gazetted, and\u00a0be\u00a0enforceable, but this has been held back, due to threatened legal action. The Liquor Trading Days and Hours By-Law has attracted the wrath of the members of the newly-formed Club, Bar and Restaurant Association of the Western Cape, who contributed\u00a0money to a legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,20,21],"tags":[9225,9412,9402,9409,32378,9403,257,9401,9459,9407,9413,9408,9411,1996,27,9405,9460,9410,9461,9399,9290,9406,880,13,4038,9400,32373,9404],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t