Limit your alcohol intake, urges the DTI
30 September 2015
South Africans drink too much and the government has to intervene.
This is the message that emanated from a consultative meeting hosted by the City of Johannesburg in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at Uncle Tom’s Hall in Orlando West, Soweto, on Monday September 21.
Nkoatse Mashamaite, the DTI’s Director of Gambling Law and Policy, said with the country’s consumption rate of pure alcohol standing at 9.2 litres per capita per year, South Africans ranked among the heaviest boozers in the world. Belarus, with a consumption rate of 17.4 litres per capita per year, occupies the No 1 spot on the list of the world’s biggest guzzlers, according to the World Health Organisation.
The country is followed by Moldova (16.6 litres), Lithuania (15.4 litres), Russia (15.4 litres) and Romania (14.4 litres). Mashamaite said though South Africa was not among these countries, the DTI still considered its alcohol consumption levels “too high”. He said it was against this background that moves were afoot to increase the drinking age limit from 18 to 21, among other measures.
“We are moving into a situation where consumers will have to produce their IDs before they can be allowed to buy alcohol,” he said, adding that the effects of alcohol were well documented.
He said the critical question everyone needed to ask themselves “in their interrogation of the proposed new gambling and liquor policy” was what kind of future they envisaged for their children.
He said meetings such as this were important in that they gave ordinary citizens the opportunity to make an input into what would ultimately become law. Ward Councillor Themba Msibi said there was a political imperative when the apartheid government built beer halls near each railway stations in the black townships. He reminded communities that freedom came with responsibility.
“A lot of people only know their rights but not their responsibilities,” Cllr Msibi said.
The meeting also heard that the government was concerned about liquor advertising on TV, especially during prime time. Mention was also made of the increase in outdoor liquor advertising in poor black townships. Moeketsi Lebatso, DTI’s Deputy Director: Liquor Laws, said it was a matter of concern that the alcohol foetal syndrome was on the increase, especially among black women. He said of further concern were crimes resulting from alcohol abuse.
Road deaths and abuse of women and children were some of the ills related to abuse of liquor, he said.
The proposed liability of shebeen or pub owners over the conduct of their patrons even after they had left their premises drew heated debate. Most participants said the proposal was not only unfair but it would also be difficult to enforce. Mashamaite said the proposal, though controversial, was meant to instil a sense of responsibility among liquor traders.
“Statistics show that alcohol is a huge factor in road fatalities,” he said.
Although there was concern about the proposed liquor policy, there was general agreement on the need to have responsible liquor advertising, increasing the drinking age limit to 21 and the standardisation of trading hours