Beer Giant Scraps $165 Million South Africa Investment on Alcohol Ban
- SA Breweries challenging ban on alcohol sales in court
- State imposed prohibition to help hospitals amid pandemic
Blocked consignments of beer at a SABMiller warehouse in Johannesburg.
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s South African division canceled a further 2.5 billion rand ($165 million) of investment after the government banned alcohol sales for a third time to control a resurgence of coronavirus cases.
The move brings the amount of spending called off by South African Breweries to 5 billion rand since the Covid-19 pandemic began to take off in the country 10 months ago. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government has used various forms of drinking restrictions as a means of managing the crisis, easing the burden on hospital wards that typically have a high volume of alcohol-related cases.