ALCOHOL: IT’S TIME FOR A MORE DIRECT APPROACH

“WE MUST be more direct in reducing alcohol use and abuse – the major contributing factor in the perpetration of violence – through legislative and other measures, and through community mobilisation.” – Saapa SA

Regrettably, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa didn’t read this during his presentation of the ANC’s 2020 January 8 statement on Saturday.

On December 30, the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in South Africa (Saapa SA) sent a detailed letter to the Presidency outlining the reasons why urgent action was needed to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.

Saapa SA is an non-government organisation working to build a social movement around the issue of alcohol harm, seeking to give civil society a “loud voice” on alcohol issues.

It has adopted the World Health Organisation global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, 2010; a key element of which is the need for effective legislation to regulate the sale and use of alcohol.

Saapa SA would like to believe that the ANC national executive committee and the president took to heart the contents of its letter to the Presidency, given the January 8 statement assertion that the harmful use of alcohol can be reduced “through legislative and other measures and through community mobilisation”.

These are the two pillars of Saapa SA’s advocacy strategy.

In the January 8 statement in Kimberley, Ramaphosa said the ANC had heard the calls of ordinary South Africans to “khawuleza” (hurry up) and implement policies. Saapa SA agrees.

After all, the Department of Trade and Industry published a new liquor policy for the country on September 30, 2016, and on the same day released the Liquor Amendment Bill for public comment.

Liquor is the major contributing factor in the perpetration of violence

More than three years later, it has still not been enacted. But this bill – and the Control of Marketing of Alcoholic Beverages Bill of 2013 and the Road Traffic Amendment Bill of 2015, which have also been stalled for years – constitute the very “legislative measures” the ANC statement refers to.

Not only would these bills, if enacted, play a key role in efforts to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, they would also create the enabling conditions for communities to play a meaningful part in the management of alcohol in their neighbourhoods.

An example of a successful intervention was the tobacco legislation of 1999, giving the majority non-smokers the power to exercise their right not to breathe the smoke of others. Instead of non-smokers asking smokers not to smoke in their presence, it is now smokers who have to ask if they can smoke or else remove themselves from the company of others.

Effective legislative measures to control sale and consumption of alcohol will empower people in communities everywhere to have a say over where and how alcohol is consumed.

Health costs account for the highest percentage of alcohol-attributable costs; 2017/18 figures show that the cost of alcohol-related harm was equal to 5% of the total health budget (R9.9 billion out of R187.5bn).

Ramaphosa must now “be more direct in reducing alcohol use and abuse … through legislative and other measures”.