Tourism Tattler received the following email from specialist liquor licence attorney, Leon Slotow, which is of particular concern to hospitality service providers in the Gauteng province of South Africa.
Attempts by Tourism Tattler to contact the Department Of Economic Development – Gauteng Provincial Government on the telephone ‘Hotline’ number provided in the advertisement (see below) for comment on the reason why liquor licences need to be verified proved unsuccessful, as the number simply rings without being answered – Editor.
RE: LIQUOR LICENCE VERIFICATION STATUS AND UPDATE REQUIREMENT
You may or may not have seen the attached advertisement which appeared in the Star on 27 February 2015. I have no doubt it was also published in other publications. (Not in that Tourism Tattler Trade Journal, that’s for sure – Editor).
From this advertisement you will note that the Gauteng Liquor Board intends cancelling approximately 9484 licences unless these licences are verified and updated within 45 days of the publication date. This is only applicable in Gauteng.
You will recall that we went through this process about a year ago with about 5000 licences. Whether or not the Liquor Board is entitled in law to take this step or to cancel licences is an open question.
However from a practical point of view this does not assist you as the effect in due course could well be that a Liquor Board Inspector arrives at your premises on a Saturday night and stops you from selling liquor. It could take months to rectify the situation.
I am once again attending to the verification process on behalf of my clients, unless instructed to the contrary and will be debiting the same fee this time as for the last verification process although the Board apparently requires more documents and information.
One of the requirements is certified copies of the company/close corporation documents and certified copies of the ID books of all principals. These will probably have to be in colour. You may want to email these to me in the interim. Your co-operation is imperative.
Please address all emails in this regard to [email protected].
As always I appreciate your co-operation and assistance.
Kind Regards,
Leon Slotow
For more information visit www.slotow.co.za
