Elections in South Africa: What are the implications for the wine industry?

Bregje van Weezel (47) lives with her family in Cape Town, South Africa. She writes about her experiences in the colourful, and also complex, country. In this column, she shares her enthusiasm and knowledge about the South African wine industry. Her stories are neither too dry nor too heavy, and this column is entirely tailored to her (wine) personality. If you want to read more about everything she likes in South Africa, you can follow Bregje on Instragram @vin_ik_leuk

There were elections in South Africa with remarkable results. The ANC lost its majority after 30 years and the new and rather traditional party of former president Zuma made a surprising entrance. Including all his familiar jokes and antics. For the first time after the abolition of apartheid, a coalition will now have to be formed between different parties in a whole new political landscape. What will this mean for the South African wine industry?

Pot of tea

Despite the wine industry being completely self-sufficient with zero support from the state, the current politics of the ANC is clearly having its impact. Not always for the better. This was evident during the Corona pandemic. One of the measures, besides banning the sale of hot chicken and cigarettes, was that alcohol was also totally banned. An entire reclamation. But "a farmer make a plan", so it was not long before illegal wine sales took off and we "ordered a pot of tea" and drank wine from teacups. Unfortunately, this did make the spell last longer, as there was a lot of money to be made from this illegal trade. Can't help thinking too, that the government rather liked this form of social control. Anyway. A remarkable consequence of all this is that the red Corona wines, which are coming out now, are of above-average quality. This is because the grapes mandatorily sat much longer in the barrels and are therefore much more flavourful. And that on top of that, selection often took place because less stock was allowed to be kept. Which of course meant that only the best went through. That reminds me.

Pitching the tent

Back to politics. Because of the ANC's actions, or rather inaction, the wine industry now faces daily power cuts as the national electricity grid is on the verge of collapse. With neglected ports, making exports laborious and a constantly changing investment climate due to remarkable foreign choices. Or the fact that a few enthusiasts completely energetically set up their tents on your land, believing that they have a right to that land from the past and so now live there. This under the guise of land expropriation without any compensation. A complicated conversation. The only thing you can then do as a winemaker is to enlist the help of private security firm Red Ants or go to court. What they both have in common is that they are giant costs.

Additional tax increase

No winemaker wants additional costs, as South African wine is already severely underpriced and undervalued. The recently announced extra tax increase of over 7% on wine therefore came as an extra blow. Nice and easy for the government to clean up their own household books this way. Not so nice to the wine industry, which is already under pressure but contributes some 2.8 billion to the gross national product and employs hundreds of thousands of people. This in the country with the highest unemployment rate in the world.

Heading

So now is the moment, that for the first time since the abolition of apartheid, the ANC is no longer in sole control nationwide. What will change depends entirely on the coalition that will be formed. If the ANC continues with the party DA, the party, which governs provincially in the Cape with great economic drive and ditto successes, I see things looking rosy for the interests of winemakers and the wine industry. However, will there be a more revolutionary or traditional direction, then I fear the worst. Then we will need a lot of wine. We await it, with great interest.

You can read more columns by Bregje here.

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