INDUSTRY NEWS
GOOD NEWS ! D E D N E T X E S IT – SHEBEEN PERM
Y T R A P E H T O T MEC COMES
By GLF General-Secretary Mlungisi Majola
T
he Gauteng Liquor Forum (GLF), which represents 21 trade associations comprising more than 15 000 liquor traders in Gauteng, is pleased to announce that the MEC for Economic Development, Lebohang Maile, has extended the shebeen permits until the current court case involving the Liquor Board and the rate-payers associations of Yeoville and Bellevue is finalised. The Yeoville and Bellevue residents are complaining about the decaying of their suburbs with the number of unruly shebeens in their midst; they claim to have submitted many complaints to local SAPS right up to the provincial and national level without success, and they’ve also complained to the Liquor Board, still without success. Now they are asking the High Court to stop the Liquor Board from converting the shebeen permits into shebeen licences and giving new applicants shebeen licences. The conversion would have brought relief to the thousands of permit holders in the province who are harassed by corrupt members of SAPS, who always claim that their permits have expired, and also to the many who cannot afford to meet the tavern licence requirements. The question we are asking ourselves is who is funding these associations? The obvious factor is that these are DAled constituencies. We are therefore all suffering because of petty politics. The GLF stands by and supports responsible trading and consumption of alcohol, which is why we’ve now embarked on forming an association in these areas to educate everyone there about the do’s and don’ts in the trade. 2
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