Mabuyane abandons bid for fresh liquor ban in Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape government has made a U-turn on its call for the national coronavirus command council to impose a fresh alcohol ban.

Premier Oscar Mabuyane announced early in June that the provincial government had asked that the alcohol ban be reimposed in the province.

This, he said, was because within days of the ban having been lifted, hospitals saw a surge in trauma cases linked to alcohol abuse.

Mabuyane feared hospitals might struggle to cope with both the trauma and Covid-19 cases.

However, he has had a change of attitude, seemingly abandoning the plan altogether.

Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, said the provincial government was now focused on educating the public about the dangers of alcohol abuse.

“The current focus is to work with the industry and social partners to educate the public about proper use of alcohol to reduce harm caused by abuse. Government is focusing on that.

“We have campaigns on multimedia platforms educating people about this problem and giving them tips to use alcohol properly for their own good and for the safety of everyone in our province,” he said.

Earlier this week, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that SA might move back to a harder lockdown level if the number of new infections continued to rise exponentially.

The EFF has maintained that the lockdown should have never been eased from level five, to save lives.

By Thursday night, there were 168,061 confirmed cases nationally, 81,999 recoveries and 2,844 deaths.

The Eastern Cape accounted for 30,603 cases, 15,843 recoveries and 451 deaths.

Meanwhile, Mabuyane announced his administration’s economic recovery plan this week, which he said involved pumping money into the tourism, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and agri-processing sectors.

Mabuyane said the plan was aimed at saving the provincial economy from the hardship caused by Covid-19.

“Our current programme is to increase the total supply and demand of goods as well as services in the provincial economy, [and] increase employment levels through labour market absorption of critical occupations and demographic segments through reskilling and upskilling.”

He said the provincial  government had paid R11.1m into privately owned establishments in the tourism sector that were being used as quarantine and isolation facilities.

More than R1.4bn had been paid to companies in the province as part of the Covid-19 temporary relief scheme.

EFF provincial chair Yazini Tetyana described Mabuyane’s economic recovery plan as “an imagination in their own minds”.

“There is no recovery plan that will bring back people that are dying in the province.

“The number of cases is increasing drastically.

“We can’t replace life, we can replace the economy,” he said.

But Border Kei Chamber of Business executive director Les Holbrook said the provincial government would play a vital role in recovering the economy.

“They determine who goes back to work and when.

“It is encouraging to have the government support the recovery of the economy, but we’re hoping that there is enough revenue to make a difference, without bankruptcy.

“As always, we pray the payments are timely and equal.

“We’re also lobbying for air travel to be reinstated as it’s really unfair [because] East London is still excluded.” 

Some airports, including Port Elizabeth’s, have been given the green light to resume operating.-Dispatch