SOUTH AFRICA – The South African Alcohol Policy Alliance (SAAPA) has proposed huge changes to how alcoholic beverages are regulated and consumed in the country after methanol was found in the blood of the 21 teenagers who died last month in a bar in South Africa’s city of East London.
SAAPA said that there is a need for a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to address the issue of substance abuse along with establishing 21 as the minimum legal drinking age.
SAAPA pointed out that in 2010, South Africa endorsed the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol which was adopted at the 63rd World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland.
The nonprofit alliance further highlighted that it was necessary to put in place measures to make the National Liquor Policy recommendations into law, noting that the government should not only raise the drinking age to 21 but also to take an active stance in the prevention of substance abuse.
According to the South African Alcohol Policy Alliance, the recent Enyobeni Tavern tragedy where several underage drinkers passed away has reopened the debate around alcohol regulation and its abuse in South Africa.
The new approaches to reduce underage drinking follows President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa suggestion that there should be a national debate on whether the drinking age should be raised from 18 to 21.
In 2013, the Department of Health tabled the Control of Marketing of Alcoholic Beverages Bill, a bold initiative to ban all alcohol advertising and sponsorships to counter the ‘normalisation’ and ‘glamourisation’ of alcohol
President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa’s drinking problem is primarily one of underage drinking while SAAPA argued that underage drinking is a symptom of a bigger problem that unless recognized, appropriate solutions will not be found.
SAAPA stressed that the proposal to increase the age is part of the Liquor Amendment Bill of 2016 while noting that the bill is standing dead still and has not progressed in any official capacity.
In addition, the South African Alcohol Policy Alliance has called for the implementation of the World Health Organisation’s interventions including an increase in excise taxes on alcoholic beverages.
The WHO global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol seeks to improve the health and social outcomes for individuals, families and communities, with considerably reduced morbidity and mortality due to harmful use of alcohol and their ensuing social consequences.
WHO also recommends the enactment and enforcement of bans or comprehensive restrictions on exposure to alcohol advertising and the enactment and enforcement of restrictions on the physical availability of alcohol in sales outlets via reduced hours of sale.
At the same time, South Africa’s Cabinet has established the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to combat substance abuse and adopted a resolution calling on all spheres of government not to enter into partnerships with the liquor industry.
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