The most
important changes are the following:
Liquor Licencing
Tribunal:
Substitute
members may be appointed for the Liquor Licencing Tribunal which considers
applications for liquor licences.
This will
prevent the lack of a quorum meetings.
The Liquor
Licencing Tribunal will also be able to delegate some functions to committees.
This will
enable it to deal with certain applications quicker.
Petrol
stations:
The prohibition against granting a liquor licence on the same erf as a petrol station will be deleted.
The
vicinity of a petrol station will now only be one of the factors taken into
account when applications for new liquor licences are considered.
Event
liquor licences:
It will now
be possible to apply for an event liquor licence for any function at which
liquor will be sold. Previously this was limited to specific kinds of
functions eg. concerts, exhibitions and sporting events.
Now one
would be able to obtain a licence to sell liquor by way of a cash bar at a
private function or wedding which was not previously possible.
150 litre limit
The
provision which required a member of the public to have permission from the
Liquor Board to possess more than 150 litres of liquor will be scrapped.
However, in
terms of the amendments the fact that a person who is not a “bona fide
collector of wine” has more liquor than is “reasonably required for himself,
his family or his guests” means that he can be charged with the illegal sale of
liquor because the possession of such a quantity of liquor will be considered
prima facie proof of the sale thereof.
Powers
of the Police:
The powers
of the Police will be extended substantially.
These
powers will also be extended to municipal police officers.
Police
officers will now be entitled to close down businesses for an undetermined
period of time for various reasons.
According to Danie Cronje, the Director of Liquor Law Services at Cluver Markotter Incorporated, it is a concern for liquor licence holders that such wide ranging powers will be granted to police officers without making provision for licence holders to oppose these orders quickly in a cost effective way.
The wide
ranging in powers includes the right to search licenced premises without a
warrant.
According
to Cronje the amendments regarding the Liquor Licencing Tribunal, petrol
stations and event licences will be welcomed but he expects opposition to the
increase in powers granted to the Police and the fact that members of the
public could be charged with the illegal sale of liquor based on the quantity
of liquor possessed.