Time to bounce back Cape Town!

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS.

I celebrate with restaurants, bars and taverns today as they are allowed to sell alcohol for on-site consumption and welcome the boost this will bring to these businesses that have suffered under the lockdown regulations.

While travel between provinces is allowed and the ban on alcohol (under certain conditions) and tobacco has been lifted, other restrictions remain including the 22:00 curfew. The curfew does not make sense because restaurants are allowed to serve until 22:00, but patrons must be home by this time.

The continued ban on the sale of alcohol from Friday to Sunday still excludes the wine industry as they will not be able to open for tastings or to sell their products on weekends when much of their business is conducted.

Together with the officials in the City’s Enterprise and Investment department, we have worked tirelessly to push national government to stem the job losses and save the tourism and related industries in our city. We will continue to do so and I will again write to my national counterparts to make the case for allowing wine estates to open for business over weekends.

As I lobby national government to open even more of the economy, I do this on the understanding and on the strict condition that all businesses must adhere to stringent health and safety protocols. I also encourage residents to use alcohol responsibly.

There is no denying the devastating effect the various levels of lockdown have had on tourism, hospitality, food and beverage sectors. I have engaged with stakeholders across these industries over the last five months and heard first-hand the toll the lockdown has taken.

It is not all doom and gloom though. The department and I have also been hard at work on our strategy to bounce back. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail and we cannot afford to do so if we are to salvage these vital sectors as well as the jobs and families they support.

The tourism bounce back strategy the City has developed together with the City of Cape Town’s official Destination Marketing Organisation, Cape Town Tourism, will ensure that we breathe life back into the tourism industry and plot a sustainable and inclusive future for this vital and vibrant sector.

I look forward to implementing this strategy and working even harder to ensure that Cape Town, her businesses and residents bounce back.