Sector offers proposals on alcohol abuse
• Alternatives to state’s planned liquor bill restrictions
Liquor manufacturers, distributors and retailers have devised a set of proposals to deal with alcohol abuse, offering it as an alternative to the Department of Trade and Industry’s proposed Liquor Amendment Bill.
The draft bill, which has been open for public comment, proposes to raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 years, place restrictions on the geographic location of alcohol outlets and make those selling alcohol to inebriated people liable for any damages that might be caused by that person afterwards.
Some provincial governments, notably Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are understood to be opposed to the proposals on the grounds that they encroach on provincial competencies to regulate alcohol retailing and undermine their efforts to build township economies.
The department is working through the submissions and inputs from 30 public consultative sessions. It will then produce a final bill for submission to the Cabinet and Parliament.
In terms of the proposals by the South African Liquor Brand Owners Association, which represents producers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers of alcoholic beverages, a national strategic plan to reduce alcohol-related harm should be adopted.
The industry commits to contribute R150m annually to the implementation of the plan, which will tackle underage drinking, foetal alcohol syndrome disorder, driving under the influence, binge drinking, interpersonal and domestic violence and unlicensed outlets.
The industry agreed that alcohol abuse in SA was “unacceptably high”, but believed that programmes to reduce harmful drinking through education and targeted interventions were “inadequate” and too little was invested in them.
The National Liquor Authority has an estimated budget of R5m a year for education and awareness while the budget of the Association for Responsible Alcohol Use (ARA) for harm reduction is R6m. Provinces and companies also spend varying amounts on programmes to combat alcohol abuse.
The association has proposed less restrictive limitations on advertising than those contained in the draft bill, which recommended no alcohol advertising on radio and TV between 10pm and 6am every day of the week. The industry estimates that these proposed restrictions on advertising will lead to a reduction of R2.38bn annually on media spend — R1.88bn for television, R160m for radio, R80m for outdoor and R260m for print.
Instead, it proposes to have alcohol advertisements banned on radio and TV between 6am and 7pm, which it says will result in a R740m reduction in advertising spend. The industry is also committed to spending 15% of advertising time on promoting responsible drinking.
Currently, the industry’s codes of conduct prohibit liquor advertising between 2pm and 5pm on weekdays and before 12pm on weekends on TV. On radio, the restrictions are 6am-9am and 2pm-5pm on weekdays and no advertising before 12pm on weekends.
The association also undertook in its submission not to place billboards advertising alcoholic beverages within 500m of all schools and places of worship. With regards to the proposal to increase the legal drinking age, the industry said this would have the unintended consequence of shifting the consumption of alcohol from licensed outlets to homes and student residences as well as other areas that are outside the public domain.
Instead, the industry proposes stricter enforcement against transgressors — those who sell to underage consumers.
RESTRICTIONS ON ADVERTISING WILL LEAD TO R2.38BN CUT IN MEDIA SPEND