Cape Town - The beer industry is on a mission to get South Africans to see it differently as it lobbies the government for an excise tax increase in line with inflation or lower, to help it recover from the Covid-19 bans and related restrictions.
As part of the campaign, South African Breweries (SAB) and the Beer Association of South Africa (Basa) co-hosted a media event titled the State of the Beer Economy Address in Cape Town.
During a panel discussion, SAB chief executive Richard Rivett-Carnac rolled out statistics in a bid to show the impact of the industry on the country’s economy.
The figures Rivett-Carnac shared came from a recently published Oxford Economics Research paper (2022) which revealed that the South African beer industry contributed R71 billion to South Africa’s GDP.
“One in every 66 jobs in the country has been linked to economic activity related to beer and this amounts to 249 000 jobs in total.”
He said R1 for every R79 of the country’s GDP in 2019 was linked to the economic activity from beer that year, meaning the beer sector helped stimulate about 1.3% of the South African economy.
Discussing the beer economy and its social impact on communities, Basa chief executive Patricia Pillay reported that the organisation had partnered with the National Department of Social Development in its foetal alcohol syndrome disorder (FASD) campaign.
“The problem with FASD is that it is not curable, but it is preventable and that is why education is so important as no pregnant woman should be drinking.”
She said that as well as supporting the national campaign, Basa had also made a significant investment with millions of rand going to prevention programmes.
Pillay said that with regard to SAB’s efforts at regulation against the condition, any trader caught selling alcohol to a visibly pregnant woman would lose their liquor licence immediately.
Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine said trying to get the beer industry to fund the Basic Income Grant (BIG) was a recipe for financial disaster.
Jammine said the BIG was “totally unaffordable and would encourage a culture of handouts” and as such it would be better to continue with the current R350 social grant until the economy grew a lot more.
