Ramaphosa must choose South Africa over ANC ideological battles on alcohol and tobacco sales
11 August 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) strongly urges President Cyril Ramaphosa to end the continued ban on alcohol and tobacco sales which according to media reports will be discussed during a cabinet meeting this week.
Since the ban on tobacco sales was instituted 139 days ago and an alcohol ban which was brought back without any warning or consultation, it is believed South Africa has lost up to R8 billion in taxes from these industries.
This is roughly 11.5% of the R70 billion loan that we had to go and beg the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for.
There has also been a tsunami of job losses in both industries which run past 100 000 jobs lost and more than R10 billion worth of investments that have been pulled from South Africa.