Covid Clobbers South African Wine Again

There is a deadly disease inflicting untold misery and hardship on the citizens of the Western Cape, but it isn’t Covid – global overreaction, institutional incompetence and coronavirus myopia are the real villains behind this debacle.

Things came to a head two weeks ago; 26 November must count as one of the worst days in South Africa’s 2021 calendar, as the UK effectively banned travel (again) to the nation, depriving thousands of businesses of much-needed  income. Déjà vu in the Cape is becoming as commonplace as sunburn.

In theory, South Africa is in the midst of its high summer season – a vital part of the year that has traditionally seen millions of tourists pour money into the local economy. The UK government recently backtracked, reinstating (relatively) hassle-free travel to SA. However,  at the time of writing, US and EU travel restrictions remain in force.

“Everything was full and bustling and then it just stopped. I live in Sea Point, a major summer tourist destination. For weeks we had busy sidewalks and lines for restaurants. Tourists flocking to Cape Town’s best restaurants. Now people are begging for walk-ins,” says Cape Town-based sommelier and wine educator Erica Taylor.

“A bigger problem for the long term is that the sudden knee-jerk reaction left people scrambling to get home from their holiday. People feared they would be stranded. The lasting effects of that will ripple as we continue to fight Covid. Anyone who had to scurry to get out will tell the tale and people might be scared it would happen to them if they come here. We’re witnessing a mass exodus – the lifting of the ban was too little, too late. People had already canceled their holidays so the restaurants are hoping for national travelers. But again, with numbers on the rise people are nervous even for that. We are just in like a holding pattern.”

Indeed, it’s no secret that South Africa’s wine (and closely linked tourism industries) have had a hard time of late. A succession of four Covid-driven prohibitions on the sale of domestic alcohol, combined with the international travel restrictions, has done significant harm to the Cape’s wine industry and the livelihoods it sustains. According to the oversight body Vinpro, successive government bans put more than 21,000 wine jobs at risk, costing the government more than 5 billion rand ($340m) in tax revenue. Moreover, insiders estimate that at least 75,000 tourism and hospitality jobs were lost in 2020 in the Western Cape, due to travel bans and lockdowns.

However, the fourth domestic ban ended in July 2021, while international travel was permitted for a short period between October and November. In the autumn, business owners dared to hope that they’d turned a corner. Sadly, their future is now looking very grim indeed.

“From my perspective, the travel ban has definitely had a big affect on our clientele and the amount of cancellations/canceled bookings. We had large groups of tourists coming this season, something everyone in hospitality was looking forward to as last year’s season was already canceled putting many jobs into peril,” explains sommelier Le Roi van de Vyver.

“Most hospitality companies depend on the large influx of tourists during season so that the quiet winters aren’t as devastating. Vinpro and other hospitality bodies have done constant work to try give alternatives to a full on ban, but in the last two years everything has fallen on deaf ears from the perspective of someone reading updates and not seeing any change.”

According to insiders working in the Cape, there are also rumors of a fifth domestic alcohol ban on the cards, as Covid rates continue to climb in the country.

“We know an alcohol ban is coming. The numbers are out of control; they more than double each day. But we are also pissed because we just identified the variant – we didn’t create it,” says Taylor.

Rigid response

Putting the lives of its citizens first is clearly the only moral approach for SA’s government. Unfortunately, they have been hamstrung by a very slow vaccination roll out (less than 25 percent percent of the population is fully vaccinated), due to the country’s notoriously inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy. Yet the cause of this recent panic, the Omicron variant, is allegedly associated with milder symptoms than other strains of the virus. Many recent hospital admissions in SA are for reasons other than Covid, according to the local press.

© Wikimedia Commons
| Wine tourism hotspots like Walker Bay are empty of tourists following travel restrictions.

So why, then, is the presidency (reportedly) considering adding to the misery of the international travel ban?

“As far as I can see, the government has gotten a new power play that they can use whenever they deem fit, something they won’t soon relinquish unless something serious happens. I don’t think the alcohol bans are going to stop even after Covid has passed as the use of this ban has been justified by them for other reasons not even pertaining to Covid,”” argues van de Vyver.

He continues: “We have a rich history of wine, brandy and alcohol production. Yet I haven’t seen the government care much for it’s survival and progress, something I hope will change one day. I think there might be another ban soon – hopefully not a full lockdown on sales! The government hasn’t even tried enforcing any alternatives or looking at helping people maintain their living. There is a reason prohibition didn’t work.”

Erica Taylor adds: “The numbers are the highest they have ever been, but deaths and hospitalizations are the lowest they have ever been. The president actually has Covid right now.”

This is probably an opportune time to go in search of a silver lining. Vintage 2021 was of magnificent quality, while total Cape wine exports for the first six months of 2021 were very buoyant; shipments to China doubled in value and US drinkers are seemingly becoming more enthusiastic about Cape wine, according to recent sales figures.

The problem is that this international success uncovers another stark – and growing – inequality driving a wedge between friends and neighbors. South Africa is very much a country of haves and have-nots; compare and contrast conditions in the Cape Flats with a palatial mansion in Stellenbosch. But there is another dividing line in the Cape: businesses that can afford to export versus those reliant on domestic income.

“The problem is that Covid-19 has exposed existing structural weaknesses in the wine industry,” confirms Alexander Waibel, owner of Constantia Glen. “A large proportion of the Cape’s wine farms have been too reliant on domestic wine sales, either lacking the resources – or drive – to build up a reputation in the export markets. The pandemic has forced people to consider the future sustainability of their business model.”

Daphné Neethling, owner of Paardenkloof estate in Walker Bay, brought this to my attention earlier in 2021. She explained that her estate is “a 100 percent black- and female-owned wine farm – almost 99 percent of our sales and income are dependent on the local tourism market.” She added that any prospect of a fifth alcohol ban would probably cause her business to collapse.

“Many producers have not had the ability to build up export markets and the volume of unsold wine has built up significantly,” says Anthony Hamilton Russell, owner of Hamilton Russell Vineyards. “The coming year or two will see discounting as unsold wine is ‘flushed’ – probably worldwide. But the people to feel for are those who have lost their jobs, often less well-resourced laborers. There has certainly been fairly significant downsizing in the industry.”

The entire industry is now on tenterhooks, awaiting a possible fifth ban. It may be gross incompetence, or it may be a concerted effort on the part of the government to destroy the Cape’s diverse and economically-vital wine industry.  But one thing is for sure – they have done people like Neethling no favors.