We, the undersigned residents of Melville and surrounding suburbs, hereby petition the Gauteng Liquor Board for a moratorium on the issuing of liquor licences in the suburb of Melville.
The reasons for this request are as follows:
- There is a proliferation of liquor licences issued for this suburb. We know of more than 60 current licences.
- Many of the businesses holding liquor licences are trading in contravention of the terms and conditions attached to their licences. Contraventions include serving alcohol to intoxicated persons and minors, noise complaints due to uncontrolled patrons on premises and leaving premises, operating nightclubs/pubs on restaurant liquor licences.
Moreover, nightclubs (DJs/live bands) are operating without consent use from City of Johannesburg for“place of amusement.” In addition, the noise from music is often excessive and goes on after acceptable hours (until 4 or 5am). There is at least one recorded case of a business operating with no valid liquor licence, but instead posting a fake license for the business.
- These contraventions of the conditions of liquor licences have a negative impact on the suburb and affect the amenity of a residential suburb. The suburb image has been damaged and property prices have been negatively affected.
- Melville is not immune to the country’s larger issues of violence that result from the uncontrolled sale of liquor. The suburb is experiencing considerable crime, not limited to phone snatching and muggings that are prolific around liquor selling establishments, but also knife and gun violence, which lead to the murder of two people and njuries of six people on New Year’s Eve (1 Jan 2020). This case has yet to be
solved.
- The Gauteng Liquor Board, JMPD, and SAPS have been non-responsive
in attending to the issues which are constantly reported to them. Notably, the City has not executed any action on court orders against two non-compliant venues.
- We have a long string of communications with GLB and the GPGDED that has not been responded to regarding a premises that is operating without the licence being displayed, nor is it even present on the property. This premises allows public drinking at all hours, with many photographs to support this observation.
We request a
- full audit of all liquor licences issued in the suburb and an enforcement of compliance of the granted licence conditions;
- a full report on the above audit, and regular engagements/updates on the issues identified;
- full law enforcement and legal action to be taken on all businesses found to be non-compliant.
We, the residents of Melville and surrounding suburbs, are willing to review our position on the moratorium once the above conditions have been met.