“What must we do if we can’t drink? We’re poor; it’s our only way of having some joy. I’ll march on Parliament and there’ll be war if shebeens are closed. We’ll die fighting for our right to drink and sell Carling and Smirnoff.”
Hendriks Masizana sells liquor from his shack in Cape Town’s Joe Slovo squatter camp. In these words he outlined his bitter opposition to a tough new liquor law introduced by the Western Cape government. The law pits the province against both shebeen owners and the booze industry.
In a bid to tackle the province’s chronic alcohol-related ills it aims to shut down illegal outlets by regulating supply at source and placing the onus on manufacturers and distributors to supply only those with valid liquor licences.
It will also be an offence for anyone to drink alcohol in a vehicle, including passengers.
Offenders face fines of up to R1-million and/or five years’ imprisonment, while the state can seize vehicles and even buildings belonging to them.
Driving the Western Cape Liquor Act is provincial finance minister Garth Strachan, who said he would not be intimidated by looming resistance to the restrictions.
“This Act is zero-tolerance stuff. We have to curb the massive and devastating effect that alcohol has on our society,” Strachan said.
“Retailers have profited for decades from selling liquor under the guise of legality to illegal shebeens.”
In September last year Richard Chance, SAB Miller’s corporate social responsibility manager, wrote to Strachan objecting to clauses in the Act, which, he said, would make it almost impossible to obtain a licence for liquor sales in a residential area and even revoke existing licences. He warned that the provincial Act conflicts with national legislation, warning that it might be open to constitutional challenge.
The liquor industry, estimated to be worth R40-billion a year, is said to make up to 60% of its profits by selling alcohol to shebeens.
The Western Cape has 3 200 legal sellers of alcohol and about 30 000 illegal outlets, most of which would close under the new law. Partly in force since January 1, it has already resulted in some closures. Officials estimate that between 60 000 and 100 000 jobs may be at stake.
Firmly behind Strachan is the head of the Medical Research Council’s alcohol and drug abuse research unit, Charles Parry, who has worked with the minister on the legislation for five years. “I’m a happy man. This is the most important and far-reaching provincial policy around alcohol in South Africa and a major step forward in addressing the over-supply of alcohol and under-regulation of the industry … The cost and burden of alcohol on the country is too big to be left as is.”
But Masizana gave another perspective, saying that because of the tough requirements he had given up trying to go legal years ago.
“The liquor board people told me to have toilets for men and women and facilities for people in wheelchairs. I laughed and said: Hey! I live in a shack. People sit on crates – where are you people from?”
He has supported his eight-member family on the proceeds of alcohol sales since inheriting the shebeen from his father and has not had other employment.
“We know that drinking and crime walk hand in hand. The ladies drink too much and then they get raped. The men drink too much and then they either commit crimes or they get robbed.
“Of course crime will come down when you close us down. But then unemployment will go up and people will commit crime in any case,” Masizana said.
Black wholesalers are also objecting. Andile Martins, the manager of Langa Liquors, which has a R3,5-million a month turnover and sells 80% of its stock to illegal shebeen owners, warned that the Act “will close us down and completely change life in the townships”.
The SA Liquor Traders’ Association threatened this week to take government to court over the Act, while the big manufacturers, SAB Miller and Brandhouse, are preparing representations to the provincial government.
“SAB doesn’t deliver to illegal shebeens and will continue to supply only licensed outlets,” said Janine van Stolk, SAB’s communications manager.
Strachan said his department was studying the impact of the law and would accommodate unemployed shebeen owners through a three-year initiative to create 100 000 jobs.
South Africa’s serial killer
Alcohol abuse costs South Africa at least R9-billion a year — roughly R4 000 per taxpayer.
Adult per capita consumption of alcohol is among the highest in the world — more than 17 litres a year.
Alcohol is the third-largest contributor to death and disability in South Africa — after unsafe sex and interpersonal violence.
About half of all the murders committed in South Africa are related to alcohol abuse.
About 60% of hospital trauma cases result from drunkenness.
The incidence of foetal alcohol syndrome in Cape Town is one per every 281 births.
In 67% of domestic violence cases in the Cape the perpetrator has been drinking alcohol.
Men with an alcohol problem are twice as likely to commit violent acts against their partners; women who drink are twice as likely to be victims of violence.
Sixty percent of drivers who die in accidents have dangerously high levels of alcohol in their blood.
Fifty percent of truck drivers and 30% of taxi drivers drive under the influence of alchohol and/or dagga.
One out of every seven drivers on the road at night is drunk.
— Source: Medical Research Council