Francois Rossouw, CEO of Southern Africa Agri Initiative , a non-profit network for farmers, said court papers to challenge the banning of on-site consumption had already been prepared and were to be filed with the court on Monday July 13, but then the complete ban was announced on the Sunday night and the application had to be redrafted.
He said the continued ban on wine sales would result in a loss of thousands of jobs on wine farms, “economic losses and damage that SA simply cannot afford”. In their affidavits, wine farmers say they have already had to retrench employees and many more jobs are now on the line. Charles Back, MD of Fairview Investments, said the company could now only accommodate 120 of 254 workers and even these were on reduced salaries.