South Africa's wine industry reels from alcohol bans
By Tanya STEENKAMP
FEB 3, 2021
Key industry: South Africa's wine sector employs more than a quarter of a million people. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP)
Drinkers in South Africa may cheer the government's decision to lift the latest bar on alcohol sales, but the wine sector fears the move has come too late to save thousands of jobs.
The key industry has been badly hit by a string of booze bans, imposed to ease the number of trauma cases in hospitals burdened by coronavirus patients.
The third such restriction, imposed on December 28 as South Africa struggled with a second Covid wave, was lifted on Monday.