1. Amendments effected to the Liquor Bill, 2003
Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry
Cape Town
11 November 2003

2. Objective of the presentation
To explain rationale for amendments effected by Select Committee on Economic and Foreign Affairs and adopted in NCOP

3. Overview of amendments
3 types of amendments
Changes required due to unintended consequences resulting from amendments
Changes proposed pursuant to implementation concerns after discussions with provinces
Changes requested by Select Committee through mandates (mainly technical, one substantive)

4. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 3(2)
The initial draft exempted the sale of liquor from a private collection. The NA amendments exempted the private collection as a whole from the Act.
Provisions concerning concoctions and sale of liquor to minors to longer applied to private collections
As a result, section changed to read: “Section 4 of the Act does not apply to the sale of liquor from a private collection”.

5. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 4(3) and 4(5)
The initial draft granted a manufacturer a right to distribute only to the extent permitted by his conditions of registration.
The changes resulted in the Bill permitting distribution absolutely, if permitted by the conditions.
The change negated the Minister’s ability to finetune the distribution authority, rendering the Minister’s discretion to essentially a “yes” or “no” choice.
The section were amended to read: “to a retail seller, if and to the extent permitted by the conditions of registration”
In addition, section 13 (3)(b) was amended to read: “. . conditions that determine whether, or the extent to which, the applicant . . .”

6. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 6(2)
The draft prohibited adding impotable substances to liquor;
The NA amendments prohibited the manufacture and sale of impotables “for consumption”;
The concern was that this created a potential loophole for people to claim that the substance was not being sold for consumption
As a result, the section was amended by adding the following words at the end of subsection (2): “add an impotable substance to liquor, or to sell or supply any liquor to which an impotable substance has been added.”

7. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 10
The initial draft prohibited the sale or supply to minors
The NA amendments prohibited only the sale of liquor to minors, because it was thought that sale included supply
The result is that there was no prohibition against the supply of liquor to a minor, despite the intention
In addition, it was found that there was no prohibition on a minor producing liquor for personal consumption
The amendments by the NCOP inserted a new clause (5) which read: “A minor must not (a) produce liquor;(b) import liquor; (c) supply liquor to any other person.”
In addition, the word “supply” was added back into the section after the use of “sale”.
In addition, the Select Committee felt strongly that it was not appropriate to outlaw for example, the consumption of liquor as part of a religious ceremony – a new subsection was introduced to deal with this

8. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 11(2)(e)
The draft relied on the concept of a defined term “significant offence”.
The NA amendments dropped that and attempted to conflate it into the substantive provision.
The problem was that the syntax created an ambiguity, which on the surface appeared to speak of a provincial “offence which is inconsistent with this Act”. What was intended was to refer to conduct that is an offence under provincial law, and is inconsistent with this Act.
The following words were inserted after the word “offence”: “the elements of which are”. In addition, the word”is” was deleted.

9. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 20
A comment from one of the provinces suggested that the certificate of registration should only be cancelled after notification – appropriate changes were effected

10. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 26(2((f)(i)
Free State comments that there is a vestigial reference to production and bottling.
The comment is correct.
Change “produced or bottled” to “manufactured”.

11. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 34(1)
The Draft specified which provisions resulted in offences.
The Bill approved in the National Assembly made any contravention of the Act an offence
As a result, section 34 was amended as follows:
In (1)(a), delete “any provision of this Act”, and substitute “section 4(2), 5(1), 6,7,8,9 or 10, or subsection (2)”.

12. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 36(1)
The draft read “any employee, agent of another person “
 The Bill limits it to an agent, employee etc of a registered person.
A non-registered company whose employees engage in unregistered manufacture or distribution cannot itself be prosecuted! This significantly undermines the intent of the Act.
Delete the word “registered” in line 1, 3, and 5, for a total of 4 deletions

13. Amendments effected by the NCOP
Section 45
Some provinces raised the issue of retailers performing local distribution functions. Some provinces felt that this was a retail function;
The dti took the view that this was a distribution function, but that it was occurring locally and should therefore be more appropriately regulated by provinces
To achieve this, section 45 (2) was inserted: “ The Minister may delegate to the Member of Executive Council of a province authority to exercise all or part of the Minister’s powers, discretion and responsibility under this Act with respect to the registration of persons within that province as distributors of liquor.”

14. Thank you