Make alcohol ban our new normal
Lockdown is proof that we can stop curse of drinking
Sometime last year, Panyaza Lesufi baffled us. The man brazenly called for a total ban on alcohol consumption.
The Gauteng education MEC wrote on Twitter: “If you care about our nation, alcohol must be stopped in its tracks. We can’t allow this to continue unabated. Defenders of alcohol, please accept that this drug is ravaging our nation. It must be stopped. It strips the dignity of our people. #Alcoholfreesa.”
Okay, this much is the truth. No one respects drunkards.
Admittedly, it’s not everyone of us who slips into a state of inebriation while indulging.
As was expected, Lesufi’s anti-alcohol campaign roiled a section of his followers. Perhaps timing too was problematic.
“The things you say in December are very scary,” retorted one Twitter follower. “Telling people to stay away from booze when they’ve just received bonuses for the festive season could be counter-productive. We’re likely to be convinced if you engage us when we’re broke in January.”
Another follower reminded Lesufi that the money he was spending on drinking was his.
Do you see what I mean?
Several other reasons explain why Lesufi annoyed some people. Notwithstanding all the ugly things attributed to it, arguably alcohol has a side that’s not so bad after all. Unlike a cup of coffee, a cold beer is sure to make one forget, albeit fleetingly, their perennial debt or sexual problems.
Let’s face it, a beautifully fermented brew can be a confidence booster too. Presumably, you’ve come across that guy who’s got a strange habit of tucking in a cotton-flannel shirt, winking at every woman at the nightclub. Ordinarily, such fellows are hopelessly sheepish among women when they’re sober.
Believe me, I know.
But for those who had Lady Luck on their side, they are husbands and fathers today.
Thanks to alcohol
It’s small wonder, though, that Lesufi’s idea was dismissed as an attention-seeking mirage. In our country, alcohol has assumed a social standing of an idol. We valorise it in more ways than one.
Television advertisements glamorise it but none of them represent a real-life state of things. Contrary to the illusion of material success these advertisements portray, the indignity of alcoholism and its associated ills are the truest end results.
This commodified representation of elite social status is superficial and misleading.
A Global status report on alcohol and health 2018 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) lays bare the social damage caused by drinking:
• Alcohol use increases sexual risks and could affect factors such as partner selection and the likelihood of unprotected sex.
• Potential effects of alcohol include impairment in attention, cognition and dexterity (which are important for such activities as driving a car); aggressive impulses and loss of behavioural control (important for criminal violence).
These are just a few social ills cited by the report.
South Africa’s liquor industry is estimated to be worth billions of rand. Given its contribution to the tax revenue and the crucial jobs it creates in the value chain, its defenders sound convincing.
But at what cost?
Excessive drinking is known to be a causal factor of various diseases, which needlessly put pressure on our health-care system. Drinking is also blamed as a leading cause of road injuries and deaths that could be avoidable. All these rob our country of human capital and money.
According to CNN, South Africa is one of the four countries that imposed a ban on cigarette and alcohol sales during the Covid-19 lockdown. The other three are Thailand, the island of Greenland and parts of Mexico.
Now enter Lesufi’s talisman, Police Minister Bheki Cele. Ndosi has literally closed the alcohol taps. We’ve been forced to stay sober.
For a country that’s ranked the sixth-drunkest in the world by the WHO, remaining sober for over a month is by no means a small feat.
We can stop drinking
There are several lessons we can therefore draw from the manner our country handled the issue of alcohol in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
First, sobriety is possible. Second, we must tighten the noose on liquor regulation.
This includes a total ban on alcohol advertisement, (we’ve done it with cigarettes), limiting alcohol sales to fewer days in a week, and severely punishing drunk drivers.
The enactment of the Liquor Products Amendment Bill, which increases the legal drinking age from 18 to 21, however controversial, should be expedited. The controversy here is that the same 18-year-olds, whose drinking we want to delay, can legally get married and stand for political office.
But at the rate alcohol abuse is wreaking havoc to both the young and old, something’s got to give.
In the meantime, Lesufi and his colleagues in the education sector should find creative ways of spreading the dangers of alcohol in the classrooms.
Director-general of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, puts it aptly: “We have no time to waste; it is time to deliver on alcohol control.”
Lockdown regulations have set a precedent – make it our new normal.
• Moloto is a former news reporter. He writes in his personal capacity