“With the spate of crime increasing in our area, we will have to see in our amendment law whether we could impose these kind of conditions to taverners,” he said.
Manamela was speaking telephonically to Sowetan while at the crime scene in Orlando East, Soweto, where 15 people were shot and killed by armed men.
Two other people were killed in Katlehong on Friday, raising serious concerns for the safety of patrons who visit taverns at night.
In the Orlando East incident, Manamela said it was yet to be established if the tavern owner had a valid liquor licence.
“We are putting together pieces of information. I cannot tell you with certainty [whether the tavern was licensed or not]. There is information that the police have which we want to compare with ours so that we can be able to make a valid statement on whether they were licensed or not,’ Manamela said.
He said the board, which has only 30 inspectors, does conduct inspections of liquor outlets to check compliance.
“We partner with the police on what they call ‘O kae molao’. The thing is that we may not cover every corner of Gauteng because of the capacity that we have which cannot meet up with the challenges that are on the ground.
“The number of inspectors that we have is very low compared to the number of people in Gauteng. There is never enough force of inspectors that could address non-compliance,” Manamela said.
According to the board, there are about 30,000 liquor outlets in the province.
The killing of people in Katlehong and Soweto comes on the heels of the death of 21 teenagers at Nyobeni tavern in East London, Eastern Cape. Police are still investigating the cause of the death of the teenagers.
Liquor Board may add security measures to criteria for getting a licence
Image: ANTONIO MUCHAVE
The Gauteng Liquor Board says there is no requirement for a tavern owner to have security personnel at their establishment but such could be considered in the future as the safety of patrons is constantly becoming a big issue in the country.
Chief director of the Gauteng Liquor Board Adv Fati Manamela said the organisation was concerned about the spate of killings in taverns and the incident in Soweto was the first of its kind in the area.
Manamela said tavern owners can deploy security personnel at the entrance of the facility to search patrons coming in and also install cameras to monitor all movement outside the building.
However, he conceded these would increase costs for the owners of taverns.
“It is generally not a requirement per se for the licence holder to implement such security measures. Probably in our regulations we will have to come up with this kind of safety measures that will be part of the qualifying criteria for having a licence. But the law as it stands does not put any requirement for security personnel or cameras.
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“With the spate of crime increasing in our area, we will have to see in our amendment law whether we could impose these kind of conditions to taverners,” he said.
Manamela was speaking telephonically to Sowetan while at the crime scene in Orlando East, Soweto, where 15 people were shot and killed by armed men.
Two other people were killed in Katlehong on Friday, raising serious concerns for the safety of patrons who visit taverns at night.
In the Orlando East incident, Manamela said it was yet to be established if the tavern owner had a valid liquor licence.
“We are putting together pieces of information. I cannot tell you with certainty [whether the tavern was licensed or not]. There is information that the police have which we want to compare with ours so that we can be able to make a valid statement on whether they were licensed or not,’ Manamela said.
He said the board, which has only 30 inspectors, does conduct inspections of liquor outlets to check compliance.
“We partner with the police on what they call ‘O kae molao’. The thing is that we may not cover every corner of Gauteng because of the capacity that we have which cannot meet up with the challenges that are on the ground.
“The number of inspectors that we have is very low compared to the number of people in Gauteng. There is never enough force of inspectors that could address non-compliance,” Manamela said.
According to the board, there are about 30,000 liquor outlets in the province.
The killing of people in Katlehong and Soweto comes on the heels of the death of 21 teenagers at Nyobeni tavern in East London, Eastern Cape. Police are still investigating the cause of the death of the teenagers.
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