Government appears to be girding its loins for a battle with South Africa’s powerful liquor industry, following the social development department’s second summit on substance abuse in Durban earlier this month which called for the legal drinking age to be raised from 18 to 21 and for a ban on alcohol advertising in public and private media.
Department spokesperson Thapelo Sakoana said it was “very likely” that the summit resolutions would become legislative proposals, though he said that the move would “be preceded by consultation with affected stakeholders and would depend on the policy review processes based on the Âproposals”. A team has been assembled to draft a five-year programme of action for endorsement by the inter-ministerial committee on anti-substance abuse, which involves nine government ministries. It will be passed on to other government structures and Cabinet.
Some question the timing of the call for tougher regulation. “One cannot help but wonder if this is because of the local elections,” said Odette van der Haar, the chief executive of the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA). Adspend by the liquor industry last year is estimated at R800-million.
Zane Dangor, a member of government’s inter-ministerial task team on substance abuse and special adviser to Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini, argued that “this is not a nanny state or party political issue — it’s a public health issue that cuts across party political lines”. Dangor said rather than being a soft target, clamping down on Âalcohol use could “easily backfire” on the state.
He said not all the summit resolutions would have to go through Cabinet for approval. Some proposals, such as implementing stricter licensing laws and zoning laws that prevent liquor trading near schools, libraries or places of worship, fall under the trade and industry department and could be implemented quite soon.
“We know there’s going to be a battle. We know the liquor industry will seek to counteract most of the measures we want to put in place,” said Dangor. But the burden of harmful drinking on the health and social system could not be ignored.
Risky drinking patterns
Recent research by the World Health Organisation found that South Africa was among the world’s top five countries with risky drinking patterns. Alcohol is the world’s third-largest risk factor for disease, while injuries from road traffic accidents, domestic violence and suicides compound the disease burden. Savera Kalideen, of NGO Soul City, which has welcomed proposals to crack down on alcohol abuse, said South Africans often made the link between drinking and driving but not between drinking and alcohol.
“We have a higher death rate than countries at war — the death rate is eight times the global average for men and five times the global average for women,” Kalideen said. “Fifty percent of those deaths and 70% of the injuries are alcohol-related.” However, she said punitive laws alone would not change South Africa’s drinking culture. “Our approach is that you don’t just ban the adverts and raise the drinking age and leave it at that,” she said. Instead, a multi-sectoral and multifaceted approach, including social mobilisation, was needed.
Adrian Botha, the director of the Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use — which was set up by the major alcohol producers — believes the answer to the country’s alcohol problem lies not in new laws but in better policing of existing ones. “This is already a very heavily regulated industry. The laws exist, they just need to be applied,” Botha said.
The government’s proposed strategy also involves increasing taxes and duties on alcohol products and imposing a mandatory contribution by the liquor industry to an independent fund that will work to prevent and treat alcohol abuse. Botha questioned the need for this, saying the liquor industry already contributed more than R35-billion in taxes to the state each year. Increasing taxes on producers would pass the cost to the consumer and “if you put up the price, people either buy down or buy other cÂoncoctions”.
Home brews and traditional beers form a significant part of the country’s alcohol sector and are unregulated. Regulating them was another summit proposal. Van der Haar said the ACA opposed a total ban on advertising, preferring a “dilution” that would ensure adverts that were not flighted at certain times and that social responsibility messages would be broadcast. A ban would “just give rise to more creative ways to advertise the product. Advertising spend will go from above the line to below the line,” she said.
Promotional advertising
In this scenario advertisers would move away from TV adverts and billboards towards experiential events and promotions, including company-sponsored parties in which one alcohol brand would be available. Tobacco companies have staged such events in recent years.
The South African Liquor Traders’ Association is concerned about the effect on traders of increased taxes and licensing fees. The association’s chairperson, Saint Madlala, said liquor traders in the Western Cape and Gauteng were already planning a march on April 12 to protest against “unbearable” licensing fees and “unfair” treatment by the police, who, he alleged, shut down licenced traders at arbitrary times and confiscated stock from those they accused of holding fake licences.
Kimberley liquor trader Uncle Maruping said making licences harder to obtain would “force people underground [and] this creates more problems. Rather make them responsible traders.”
Maruping said high unemployment in the Northern Cape had led to a growing number of unlicenced traders. He sympathised with them, saying “that guy is at least trying to avoid crime and create employment” and would not condemn police or the community for turning a blind eye. According to Soul City there are 220 000 liquor outlets in South Africa, of which just 20 000 are licenced.
Blanket ban on advertising just one proposal
The 35 proposals put forward at the anti-substance abuse summit include:
- Raising the legal age for alcohol consumption to 21;
- Restricting the time and days of the week that alcohol can be legally sold;
- Implementing regulations restricting the number of liquor outlets;
- Regulating home brews and “concoctions”;
- Raising duties and taxes on Âalcohol products;
- Increasing the criminal liability of those who sell alcohol to underage drinkers, people who are drunk and those they know will drive motor vehicles;
- Forcing the liquor industry to contribute to an independent fund;
- Banning all advertising of alcohol products in the public and private media;
- Banning all sponsorship by the alcohol industry of sports, recreation, arts and cultural events;
- Reducing the legal alcohol limit for drivers; and
- Barring novice drivers from Âconsuming alcohol before driving.
On April 5 Soul City and the Mail & Guardian will host a Critical Thinking Forum on the topic “Who pays for alcohol-related harm?” To attend the event in Cape Town contact Tamarin Marshman on 011 250 7420 or email [email protected]