In a case that highlights the central role that provinces play in protecting public health and safety, lawyers for DGMT are due to appear in the Northern Cape High Court in Kimberley on Thursday, 16 October 2025, to challenge the constitutionality of sections of the Northern Cape Gambling and Liquor Act of 2024.
DGMT argues that the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature has a constitutional obligation to take reasonable measures to protect the public’s rights to health, safety and dignity, and failed to do so by enacting late-night liquor trading hours without due regard to the impact on the health and wellbeing of communities.
Longer trading hours are known to increase the likelihood of alcohol harms, such as violent incidents, as well as heavy and binge drinking.
Furthermore, the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature exposed residents to heightened risk without giving the public a reasonable chance to have their say in the matter. Communities had initially been asked to comment on a bill that reduced trading hours, only to have the final legislation reflect an increase in trading hours after just a few days’ notice of a meeting to discuss legislative changes was sent to a limited group of stakeholders.
The version of the bill initially published for comment had proposed shorter trading hours following years of concern over alcohol-related harm in the area. However, the final version dramatically extended liquor trading hours across the province, including allowing liquor stores to trade on Sundays and extending the closing hours of nightclubs from Mondays to Saturdays from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. This about-turn and limited opportunity for subsequent comment betrayed the original intention of the proposed legislation.
“The decision to push trading hours into the early hours of the morning directly contradicts the provincial government’s mandate to protect the public,” says Zimasa Mpemnyama, project lead of Rethink Your Drink, an alcohol harms reduction campaign by DGMT. “Extended trading hours are linked to more violence, injuries and deaths, burdening an already overstretched public healthcare system. Moreover, women bear the brunt of gender-based violence linked to alcohol.”
At the same time, children exposed to alcohol in the womb suffer lifelong consequences. The Northern Cape has among the highest recorded rates of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in South Africa, with research showing that one in five children is affected, which is more than twenty times the global average for FASD.
“The sale of alcohol cannot be to secure profit at any cost,” Mpemnyama explains. “Evidence from South Africa and around the world shows that alcohol sales during the early hours of the morning are the most harmful to communities. This case is about protecting people, not profit, and it’s deeply concerning that a provincial legislature must be taken to court to ensure it fulfils that most basic of obligations.”
DGMT is arguing for the enacted trading hours to be set aside, and for the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature to follow a thorough and deliberate public participatory process.
The Northern Cape case builds on DGMT’s ongoing legal effort to promote responsible and evidence-based liquor regulation nationwide. Last year, the High Court in the Western Cape suspended a bylaw in the Kannaland Municipality that allowed extended trading hours seven days a week, after DGMT took the municipality to court.
These cases underscore DGMT’s commitment to ensuring that liquor laws prioritise public health, protect communities, and strengthen participatory democracy.
For more detail on the case, see DGMT’s Notice of Motion, Founding Affidavit, Replying Affidavit and Heads of Argument, and the NC Provincial Government’s Answering Affidavit and Heads of Argument.
