Likker not Lekker Citichat 13 April 2007

CITICHAT 14/2007 - 13 April 2007




Likker is not always Lekker and the Pres comes to town



The three essential commodities that accompanied the early growth of Joeys were gold, liquor and sex. From a base of probably 200 people in the area at the time of the discovery of gold, the population skyrocketed to 26 000 within four years; 74 000 in ten and 620 000 in 40 years. At the end of four years there were 312 bars and many sex workers providing for the mainly male population. And as the gold was progressively reduced, the other two increased, exponentially! (I see that our National Commissioner of Police is now recommending that sex workers become legalized before 2010 and there is also a suggestion floating around that a red light district should be introduced in the Inner City.)



The bigger problem for the moment relates to the issuing of liquor licenses. I understand that there are more liquor licenses in Gauteng than the total of all the other provinces! Certainly the Inner City has seen a rash of indiscriminate liquor licenses being granted with absolutely no public consultation. International research has clearly demonstrated the linkages between the availability of liquor and levels of crime and violence. This past Easter weekend was accompanied by many ‘don’t drink and drive’ advertisements in acknowledgement of the fact that the majority of road accidents and fatalities can be linked to drivers under the influence of alcohol – recently these purportedly included a Chief of Police and a Judge!



Evidently the Provincial Government published a Draft Liquor Policy towards the end of last year – I say evidently because I certainly missed the notice and the process that was adopted, described by one inner-city colleague as opaque, apparently did not include the solicitation of comments from the broader public such as business organizations or residents associations. Yet it is businesses and communities that have to bear the brunt of the problems that flow from many of these establishments. There have been numerous complaints recently of increased public drunkenness in Braamfontein following the opening of what were perceived as shebeens but which have now been found to have been granted licenses. Chatting to a senior Council official this week I gathered that licenses are being granted to shebeens operating from individual flats in residential developments. There are very real negative social consequences that arise from the abuse of liquor and to legitimise the sale of liquor in a residential apartment block is, I think, criminal.



Generally Council consent is also not sought when any form of entertainment is to be provided at these establishments leading to later complaints about noise, etc. Currently the advertising of the application to allow for objections is extremely unsatisfactory and doesn’t seek the comment of affected residents or businesses in the area. Key Council Departments are also not informed of the granting of licenses but the SAPS, JMPD and various council departments are expected to deal with the problems that emanate from places where liquor is sold as well as ensuring that permitted hours of operation are adhered to as well as checking that liquor is not sold to minors.



The policy points out that the current shebeen problem “is a legacy of our apartheid past and cannot be allowed to linger on indefinitely. Unless an end is brought about to the untenable situation it will be impossible to implement a meaningful liquor policy…….the present state of lawlessness and chaos in the industry cannot be allowed to continue.”



The policy therefore proposes that shebeeners will be given an opportunity to apply for a temporary trade permit which will later have to be converted to a shebeen license. This means that shebeens currently operating illegally in areas that are not zoned for such activity are going to be legalized in the short term without the applicants obtaining prior planning clearance from the local authority on matters of zoning or land use rights. This sets up a certain expectation in the applicant’s mind and leads to money being spent on extending buildings and upgrading facilities in order to qualify for a shebeen licence. They then learn that the Council will not support the application because it is not in accordance with planning or zoning requirements or because the Council feels that the facility will affect the adjacent landowners. So you create another illegal operation.



The new policy will, hopefully, address many of the current problems being experienced in the liquor industry but it appears as if it will introduce new ones as well. In my mind it again raises the overall issue of the interface between Provincial and Local Government. Here we have a Provincial authority directly impacting on the urban environment which is the responsibility of the council with little or no communication. We do persist in making it difficult to follow our urban regeneration needs from a united front.



The Pres comes to town.



I believe that President Thabo Mbeki will be spending this weekend in the metro and partly in the Inner City. The last time the President was here on Inner City business, that I know of, was in July 1997 when he announced the Inner City Vision – “The Golden Heartbeat of Africa” The Vision was the outcome of months of hard work by a large number of persons passionate about the inner city – members of the community, the business sector and some politicians and officials. The heartbeat was rather weak at that time, in fact the media constantly wanted us to believe that the patient had actually passed away – “Such and such flees the inner city – another nail in the inner city coffin”



This weekend he will undoubtedly be shown the results of the hard work that has gone into turning the Inner City around from the time he was here in 1997. Although the public and private sectors have made great strides together in the process, I trust that the Council will emphasise the major role that business has played sometimes against quite difficult odds.



For instance the base off which the regeneration has been developed has been the establishment of City Improvement Districts, a private sector initiative to ensure enhanced public environments by providing safety and security, maintenance and cleaning. Private sector money totaling many millions of rand per annum goes into maintaining these areas at a level far greater than the city can provide.



I trust that the President will be shown some of our continuing real problems when he is shown the successes - problems that haven’t been resolved for over a decade now – problems such as housing for the poor, unmanaged informal trading and taxis, badly maintained public space.



The President will evidently be meeting with ‘a representative group of business stakeholders’ on Saturday morning. Not sure who chose the representative group because all I have seen is an invitation to Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry members passed on to me by a colleague. The Chamber, whilst doing great work in many areas, with respect, has hardly been at the forefront of the renewal process.



Which makes me really worried that the people who should be meeting with the President, who have something to show and to tell, may not have been invited to the show. I started off doing a list but it’s dangerous to single people out by name even if their contribution has been special because the recovery of the city has, in so many ways, been a team effort.



But there are the private sector residential developers, the new breed of entrepreneurial developers and investors, the stalwarts who have stuck by the inner city through thick and thin, those running support institutions, those in the cultural sector, the community workers, the built environment professionals and academics, those who’ve fought passionately against the wholesale destruction of the city’s built heritage, etc etc etc. Apart from anything else, they are a colourful lot who would be able to provide the President with an accurate picture of the issues at the private/public sector interface.



There are a whole host of business people who have contributed to the process and it would be good for them to be able to say to the President, “when you launched the ‘golden heartbeat of Africa’ vision the patient was in great distress. Through a joint effort with the public sector the pulse is beating strongly again although, from time to time, it does fade a bit. Another few years and we’ll be able to remove the drip and declare the patient fully recovered.”



Don’t know if I’m becoming cynical in my old age but I suspect that many of the real movers and shakers in the process, both in the private and public sectors won’t crack an invite and an awful lot of people in both sectors who had nothing to do with the process will!



Ah, that’s life, best, neil