Sugar tax no panacea

THERE has been a lot of heat over the past week about the government’s planned tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). Coca-Cola Beverages Africa has threatened to renege on an agreement on enterprise investments, despite this being a condition of its merger with two other parties.

Meanwhile, the Beverages Association of SA (BevSA) claims that up to 72 000 jobs will be lost – although it has not released the research it commissioned to explain this.

But sugary drinks are one of the main causes of obesity. About 70 percent of South African women and 40 percent of men are overweight or obese, and we are getting fatter each year. SSBs are so pervasive that South African toddlers are more likely to be given them than milk.

Obesity causes hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, strokes and cancer. And sugary drinks also rot our teeth.

As most people rely on public health, it is the government that picks up the tab for obesity.

Economists have advised the Treasury that the fastest way to address obesity is to tax the main culprit.

Taxes reach everyone and lower income groups – most affected by obesity – are most likely to cut down on drinking them.

Taxation works. Mexico – the world’s biggest consumer of sodas – introduced a 10 percent tax on SSBs in 2014 and consumption dropped by 6 percent, while the consumption of healthier drinks increased.

But a tax alone isn’t going to solve our obesity problem.

Our successful anti-tobacco measures were based both on taxation and making the environment difficult for smokers.

We need a wide range of other efforts including better labelling of foods, public education as well as interventions to make healthy food and drinks less expensive.

The tax would also be much more popular with citizens if the proceeds were ring-fenced for healthy initiatives – such as better quality school meals or to subsidise nutritious food and drink.

The public is wary of more money disappearing in the government’s coffers, such as the plastic shopping bag levy that was introduced in 2004.