Johannesburg, 14 December 2010:
The South African Breweries (SAB) and the Gauteng Department of Economic Development today announced a landmark partnership to promote responsible trading in the liquor industry throughout Gauteng, which includes facilitating interventions to encourage traders to operate formalised businesses.
Vincent Maphai, SAB director of Corporate Affairs and Transformation, says SAB has a responsibility to encourage responsible trading. “SAB firmly believes that alcohol producers can and must make a positive contribution to reducing harmful drinking. Alcohol producers are ready and willing to partner with like-minded stakeholders to develop initiatives to halt the abuse of alcohol, including promoting responsible trading by liquor retailers. SAB believes that in order for these initiatives to be truly successful, it is essential that the company plays a key support role. We wholeheartedly welcome the partnership with the Gauteng department of economic development and look forward to it being a long and fruitful one.”
Last year, SAB announced an alcohol strategy (background details included), an integral part of which was increasing resources to build partnerships with government and the industry. There is also a strong focus on driving real advances in the normalisation of the industry through supporting and incentivising shebeens to become part of the formally regulated industry. SAB is committed to collaboration and self-regulation in the industry. The company assists the relevant stakeholders with licensing and supports regulators in building capacity and capability.
As part of this strategy, SAB will be launching a pilot project in February next year which seeks to promote responsible trading amongst taverns and shebeens. The project will run amongst 500 traders in four of SAB’s regions across the country, and will inform the way in which the company moves forward on promoting responsible trading. The pilot project is part of a review of SAB’s Mahlasedi programme - a specially designed taverner training programme to incentivise shebeens to obtain licenses – which the company is undertaking in light of the increased complexity of the regulatory environment. Over the last few years, the Mahlasedi programme has trained approximately 19 000 taverners. The programme includes a social responsibility module and a mentoring component.
Dr Maphai says SAB has long promoted the normalisation of the liquor industry. There are an estimated 120 000 people who run unlicensed outlets and who struggle to become part of the formal liquor market due mainly to the complexity of the licensing regime. These are people who are pursing an honest living but who fall outside the law by administrative fiat and as a result, struggle to grow their businesses, develop their entrepreneurial skills and who have a limited incentive to trade responsibly. SAB is therefore working hard to support government to normalise the industry.
“One of the most effective ways of ensuring that industry promotes the responsible use of alcohol is to be able to influence the behaviour of retailers and how they interact with consumers. This can only be achieved when all retailers are legal and a structured relationship with them can be formed. For this reason, the normalisation of the industry is a key tenet of SAB’s alcohol policy – it will allow us to work with retailers legitimately to ensure responsible trading.
“Ultimately, we believe that all stakeholder interests will be served by a properly regulated industry that is equitable, focuses on compliance, responsible retailing and the minimisation of abuse,” says Dr Maphai.
