Western Cape Liquor Regulations finalised
Thursday, 16 February, 2012
Cluver Markotter Inc
The Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism
published the Regulations under the Western Cape Liquor Act - which will
commence with the Act in April - on the 21st of December.
Some of the provisions in this final version of the Regulations are relevant to the wine industry.
Applications for temporary liquor licences for special events will be lodged at the Liquor Board and no longer with the local magistrate.
The application fees will also increase to R250 for the application and R250 for each day for which the temporary licence is required.
According to Danie Cronjé, the Director of Liquor Law Services at Cluver Markotter Incorporated organisations in the wine industry which require temporary licences for events for which the dates have already been determined may still apply under the current Liquor Act and he recommends that they do so before the new Act commences.
The Regulations determines that liquor licence holders may only sell 150 litres of liquor per day to a person without a liquor licence unless prior written consent is obtained from the Chairman of Liquor Board.
A person who intends to buy a significant quantity of wine from a winery will therefore have to obtain such permission or risk being limited to 150 litres.
It will be an offence to be in possession of more than 150 litres of wine without the written permission of the Chairman of the Liquor Board.
Collectors of wine would therefore have to apply for such permission otherwise they will be in contravention of the Act.
The regulations confirm that, after the Western Cape Liquor Act was amended last year, it no longer provides for garagistes to apply for an exemption from the requirement to have a liquor licence.
Although the Act states that the MEC may exempt “prescribed persons” the Act does not include garagistes as a specific class of persons who can apply for an exemption and it seems that the Minister would have to be requested to declare that garagistes meeting certain requirements are exempted.
According to Cronje a liquor licence will be required for the manufacture of liquor under the Western Cape Liquor Act whereas a licence was only required for the sale of liquor under the existing Liquor Act.
In terms of the Regulations the application fee payable to the Liquor Board when applying for a new licence has been increased from R200 to R1250.
The annual renewal fee for on-consumption licences for restaurants, clubs, pubs, hotels etc and for off-consumption licences for supermarkets, wine shops and liquor stores has been increased to R3000 a year.
The annual fee for micro-manufacturing licences which will replace licences held by wineries for wine making and wine sales has also been increased to R3000 a year.