Pick n Pay calls for booze restrictions to be relaxed
Grocery retailer Pick n Pay has added its voice to calls for government to reconsider the ban on alcohol sales.
It says this is necessary to ensure the survival of many businesses.
It says liquor traders in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng have been served a double whammy.
The selling and the distribution of alcohol are completely prohibited under lockdown level 4.
READ: Unrest will have lasting effect on investor confidence & job creation, warns SARB
Last week, hundreds of businesses were looted and damaged during the social unrest.
CEO Pieter Boone says 136 Pick n Pay food, grocery and clothing stores in both provinces were looted or torched, along with 76 liquor stores.
"We all know that over 300 liquor stores have been impacted across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, with over R500 million of illegal stock currently in the market.
"I think it is important for the formal trade, for independent liquor traders as well as for vendors and producers in the liquor industry that those liquor restrictions are being relieved."
Meanwhile, the government says the death toll, following last week's unrest in KZN is now at 258, 171 cases of murder and 132 cases of arson have been opened in the province. Seventy-nine people have died in Gauteng.
