Strippers rule, OK?
2003-03-11 12:17
Pretoria - The Constitutional Court has ruled that a law banning stripping in a place that sells liquor is unconstitutional - thus declaring sections of the Liquor Act as unconstitutional, reports SABC radio.
The sections made it an offence for nude and semi-nude people to be allowed into an entertainment area that was licensed to sell alcohol.
The application was brought by Andrew Phillips, the owner of The Ranch club in Rivonia, Sandton.
Phillips had been charged for contraventions of the Liquor Act for running a strip club.
He appealed in 2002 to the Johannesburg High Court, which set aside his conviction on the grounds that the relevant section of the Liquor Act infringed the right of freedom of expression guaranteed in the constitution.
As the High Court does not have the power to make definitive rulings in constitutional matters, the Constitutional Court was called on to confirm the ruling.
Judge Zakeria Yacoob, writing for the majority of the 11 judges, said that while the State had an interest in minimising the harm that liquor could do in society, the prohibition in the act was too broad to be reasonable.
Still has to face 'brothel' charge
It could have restricted the activities of theatres - which also have liquor licences - whose "core business... is to realise protected freedom of expression by presenting artistic creations".
The majority of the court held that a more-narrowly phrased prohibition could have been constitutional.
In a dissenting judgment, Judge Tole Madala held that the prohibition did not limit freedom of expression, but merely required that alcohol not be served on a day when performers were "not clothed" or "not properly clothed".
Madala said that, given the potential dangers when nudity and drunkenness were combined, the prohibition was reasonable.
Tuesday's ConCourt judgment does not affect Phillips's trial - due in Johannesburg regional court in August - on charges of running a brothel and employing illegal immigrants.
The Scorpions investigating unit forced The Ranch to close in December 2000. Many of the 41 women alleged to be working as prostitutes were in South Africa illegally.
- SAPA