Responsible drinking is in all our best interests

THE country went into palpitations when a rumour started floating that President Cyril Ramaphosa was set to reinstate the ban on alcohol sales, shortly after sales resumed under level 2 of the lockdown.

The rumours came after several road accidents at the weekend in which alcohol is thought to have played a part, and in one of which three police officers lost their lives.

The government was forced to deny the rumours, but the queues which formed outside liquor stores as people rushed to secure stocks should give us pause for thought.

It cannot be disputed that our nation has far too many problem drinkers. Cognisant of this, the government instated the ban on alcohol sales to avoid medical facilities having to deal with drinking-related injuries, freeing them to treat the influx of Covid-19 patients.

The ban had the immediate desired effect: significant decreases in violent crime and road accidents.

However, while pineapple sales went through the roof as people tried to brew alcohol at home, the liquor industry suffered greatly with more than 100 000 jobs estimated to have been lost and the closure of hundreds of businesses which relied on alcohol sales. Add to this the loss of billions of rand to the fiscus and it is clear the effect of the ban was severe, but still a pittance compared to the lives saved.

And this is the conundrum facing Ramaphosa and the National Coronavirus Command Council: how to balance saving lives against saving the economy.

Saving lives took precedence in the early, severe lockdown stages, with the economy gradually reopening as the country appeared to turn the tide of infections. But all these gains will be quickly reversed if a second wave of infections is triggered by people making up for lost time by drinking irresponsibly, past curfew, and not using masks and maintaining proper distancing at pubs and taverns.

Ramaphosa and the command council will not hesitate to reinstate the ban if the numbers go in the wrong direction, and drinkers will have only themselves to blame.

Drinkers, moderate and excessive, will suffer equally if the ban is reinstated. It is therefore in everyone’s best interests to ensure and encourage responsible drinking in our spheres of influence.