JOHANNESBURG - The National Liquor Traders Council has pushed back against the decision to challenge liquor sales hours.
The DG Murray Trust is approaching the Constitutional Court to change Northern Cape liquor laws.
It wants the apex court to ban alcohol sales after midnight.
Current provincial laws allow for on-site consumption until 2am.
Lucky Ntimane, representing the National Liquor Traders Council, questioned why the Northern Cape was being targeted by proposed changes to liquor trading hours.
He suggested that the province might be a testing ground for measures that could eventually be introduced across the country.
"So we believe that there isn't any scientific basis to want to push for trading hours to be restricted to midnight, because what is the issue? What is it that the DG Murray Trust is trying to achieve?
"If we're dealing with the issue of alcohol abuse, it should be something that should be addressed at specific points where we feel that the issue of alcohol abuse is gotten out of hand. But to have this approach where you almost generalise that the entire province must be punished simply because an NGO, which has got a lot of money, to be able to approach the Constitutional Court, feel that people must stop drinking at 12 o'clock, it certainly is not something that we support and it cannot fly."
Ntimane warned that the changes could threaten small liquor traders who operate taverns in local communities.
He argued that municipalities and provincial liquor boards should have the authority to extend trading hours to help sustain and support local businesses.
He also questioned why the Northern Cape was being singled out when neighbouring provinces, such as the Free State, could face similar challenges, suggesting that a much bigger issue might be at play.
"So it really doesn't make sense that why the approach will be one province, but we believe that this is a much bigger picture. There's a lot at play here that missed the eye," Ntimane said.
"It's very clear that it does take into consideration that there are provincial differences, but it must have a rational and legally defensible basis that you cannot have different opening hours in one province and next door you have different liquor trading hours.
"There is no harmonisation there that was intended as part of the norms and standards as it were by the liquor industry."
DStv Channel 403
Wednesday, 28 October 2026
