The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) through the National Liquor Authority (NLA), has successfully concluded a three day joint liquor compliance and enforcement operation in Pretoria.
The operation was conducted in partnership with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Department of Agriculture. It was targeted at distributors and retailers in the Pretoria townships, Garankuwa, Mabopane and Mamelodi East and was the Gauteng leg of a nationwide compliance campaign.
The NLA was established in terms of the Liquor Act 59 of 2003 and is responsible for regulating the macro manufacturing and distribution tiers of the liquor industry. Therefore the crackdown was aimed at ensuring compliance with Liquor Act and Regulations.
The Chief Director of the National Liquor Authority Ms Prea Ramdhuny says the operation has been a success.
“Of the 10 distributors that were inspected, we found that four were compliant, four not compliant, meaning they were contravening the Liquor Act and Regulations and two had registration certificates but were not operating. In addition, we found some to be running distribution activities while they only have retail licences. Contraventions were: failure to renew registration certificate, failure to keep records as prescribed by the Act and failure to capture their invoices in the prescribed manner. This is important as it enables government to trace and regulate volumes of liquor being sold as it is a regulated substance,” she said.
Ramdhuny said in this regard compliance notices were issued to non-compliant distributors to compel the registrants to comply.
“As this was a joint compliance and enforcement operation with other stakeholders, other findings were the number of retailers failing to comply with conditions of their licenses, failing to appoint a manager to run their outlets and failing to display the names of their establishments and trading hours, and more importantly not indicating that minors under the age of 18 are not permitted on their premises. The Department of Agriculture also removed an estimated 2381 liters of alcohol from shelves where it was found that manufacturers failed to renew their unique manufacturing A codes for local liquor and B codes for international liquor. It was also found that such liquor did not have a filling date, lot number or class designation. Furthermore the packaging of pre-packets in a plastic container is not compliant. The Department of Agriculture also took some samples for testing.”
Overall in the three day operation, fines of up to R11 500.00 were issued for contraventions.
Officials from the various government departments checking products and documentation for compliance during the Gauteng leg of the joint liquor compliance and enforcement operation in Ga-Rankuwa, Mabopane and Mamelodi East.
Bongani Lukhele – Director: Media Relations
Tel: (012) 394 1643
Mobile: 079 5083 457
WhatsApp: 074 2998 512
E-mail: BLukhele@thedtic.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)
Follow us on X: @the_dtic
https://www.facebook.com/thedti?mibextid=ZbWKwL
https://www.youtube.com/@thedtic
Share this:
