Uproar over Cape’s school booze plan
A competitor participates in a wingsuit flying contest in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China PUBLIC schools in the Western Cape could become alcoholfriendly zones, where parents can buy and drink liquor while they watch their children’s rugby matches or attend a birthday party in the school hall.
That is if a draft amendment bill by the Western Cape education department, to allow the sale and consumption of alcohol at schools, is passed.
The bill would give principals and school governing bodies the power to decide when alcohol can be sold or distributed on school premises and during school activities, including fundraising.
It has caused an outcry in some sections with civil organisations and religious groups calling it “undermining”, “dangerous” and “alarming”.
Soul City Institute advocacy manager Savera Kalideen said the bill was in direct contravention of the South African Schools Act, which did not allow alcohol on school premises.
“We have national liquor legislation which says one thing, but because we have provincial competency and can make our laws at provincial level, the provinces override good national legislation and come up with something like this, which is really unsafe for families, including children,” Kalideen said.
The MEC for education in the province, Debbie Schafer, believes the sale of alcohol would create a new revenue stream for schools. Her spokeswoman, Jessica Shelver, said Schafer believed current legislation was “extremely restrictive” and that she had received complaints from schools that wanted to engage in activities where alcohol was sold or consumed.
“We are obviously acutely aware of the huge problem we face of alcohol abuse, and this is not to be seen as condoning the abuse of alcohol in any way,” Shelver said. “However, the MEC believes we need to make it easier for schools to be in a position to have adult functions where alcohol may be consumed and/or sold.”
Kalideen said there were other ways to raise funds without normalising the use of alcohol in front of children, and that the decision should not be left to principals and school governing bodies. “We don’t think it should be left to the individual principals and SGBs because then it depends on the knowlproblems edge base of individuals about alcohol,” he said.
“National government has been trying to increase regulation of alcohol to increase levels of safety in our society, and this undermines that.”
Equal Education general secretary Tshepo Motsepe called the policy “very vague” and said that, theoretically, it would allow governing bodies to sell alcohol at any time.
He said many schools had with substance and alcohol abuse.
The Muslim Judicial Council said the department’s position was “alarming”, considering the excessive abuse of alcohol in the country, which had led the Department of Health to appeal for increased legislation to control it.
In a letter to the MEC, council secretary-general Shaykh Isgaak Taliep said the proposal contradicted efforts to protect learners from the advertising and promotion of alcohol in a school environment.
Shelver said: “The MEC is not proposing that learners drink alcohol or that alcohol is consumed or promoted in their presence. We are trying to better regulate what already happens at many schools, which will allow us to put appropriate conditions in place.”
Public submissions on the proposal closed last week.
Last month, the Western Cape government published a green paper proposing restrictions on where pedestrians who have had a drink may walk.
We are trying to better regulate what already happens at many schools