Special Report | Drink Nation March 2008

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What's on the drinks order?: Sophiatown is an ironically named bar lounge popular with Johannesburg's ever-expanding hip set.
Risky business: Niren Tolsi looks at a World Health Organisation study on the relationship between alcohol and injuries.
A nip to numb the pain: Clinical psychologist Dr Lou-Marie Kruger says South Africans drink to self-medicate.
The Krug crowd: Katzy's is a cosmopolitan cigar lounge in The Firs shopping mall, Rosebank, just table-hopping distance from its big brother, The Grillhouse.
When alcohol abuse becomes child abuse: "About half the pupils in my class suffer in some way or another from the effects of alcohol abuse by their parents and people around them."
A culture of drunken driving: Driving drunk can change lives forever, yet many South Africans -- perhaps lulled by a lack of effective law enforcement -- do it every day.
The health hangover: Most South Africans say they don't drink -- about half the men and almost 80% of women claim to be abstainers.
Tippling point: South African high flyers are known to love their drink; how some of them handle it is a different story.
The Holy Grail of drinking: The perfect hangover cure has long been the Holy Grail for barflies and near-teetotallers alike.
A love of beer starts at home: South Africans probably consume almost as much sorghum beer as they do lager, and roughly two-thirds of the traditional African beer is homebrewed.

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Glass half empty

Global statistics show that South Africans are much more likely than any other country’s citizens to cause injury or death to ourselves and to others -- often friends or family -- when intoxicated.

In response to the African National Congress Youth League’s recent calls for a national focus on alcohol abuse, the Mail & Guardian took a temperature reading of the nation’s drinking habits.

Some of the stats we dug up are of limited value -- the national Health Department has not released new figures on the impact of alcohol since 1998, and there has been no reliable survey of drink-driving deaths since the 1980s.

Still, the message is clear: alcohol abuse permeates every level of South African society, cutting across class, race, gender and age. It knows no urban-rural divide and it affects rich and poor alike, if with different results.

The consequences of alcohol abuse are everywhere: from women in the Western Cape who drink so much during pregnancy that their children are born mentally disabled, to the single-malt middle-agers who binge-drink behind high walls at home.

As Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya says in our survey: “We have developed a culture where being drunk is considered okay, normal almost.”

Ask James* a 27-year-old who, despite landing in court for drunk driving, says he’ll do it again because “it’s part of our culture and it is allowed to happen”.

Ask some of our political elite how they respond to the call of tinkling tumblers at all the best events.

* Not his real name

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Glass half empty

Drinking on view