Venture into any black area, urban or rural, especially over weekends, and you’re likely to come across throngs of young people, some in their early teens, either living it up at impromptu parties, in shebeens or simply ambling up and down the street with a can or bottle of booze in hand.
It’s as if they're showing off, a status symbol of sorts. It's become cool to drink. A teetotaller is almost regarded as old-fashioned, or even a jerk. Along with crime and other vices, consumption of alcohol is skyrocketing. It is, it seems, one of the few areas where we're able to hold our own against the rest of the world. There's an insatiable appetite for alcohol in just about every sector of the population, especially among young people.
No occasion, sad or joyful, is missed to go on the booze. Even funerals have become occasions to party. We go there not only to mourn and bury the dead; but to open our cooler boxes and have boisterous “after tears” parties, even with people who may not have known the departed. What seems to matter is that a good time is had by all.
There was a video which did the rounds during the Covid lockdown of excited customers dancing and ululating as they joined a queue to buy liquor after restrictions were partially lifted. They were excited, it was as if they had won the lotto.
The so-called insurrection in July 2021, which led to widespread burning and looting, may partly have been triggered by Jacob Zuma's imprisonment but the restrictions on the sale of alcohol were a contributing factor. Liquor outlets were the looters’ first target.
“Alcohol consumption in South Africa is off the charts”, said Dr Ebrahim Samodien in a report for the South African Medical Research Council three years ago. And the scourge shows no sign of flagging. For some, alcohol has almost become a staple diet, and an incendiary one at that.
What makes it worse is that South Africa is one of the most violent places on earth, and alcohol consumption adds fuel to that fire. It's a deadly mix. In fact, most of the country's pathologies can be traced to, or have something to do with, imbibing alcohol. The figures are staggering. Alcohol abuse accounts for a huge chunk of unnatural deaths. It is involved in 60% of road accidents and about 24% of deaths and injuries as a result.
Alcohol is involved in almost 75% of homicides. It also plays a huge role in domestic and gender-based violence. A Medical Research Council study found that 67% of domestic violence in the Cape metropole, and 76% in rural areas of southwestern Cape, were alcohol related; 69% of women abused by their spouses identified alcohol or drugs as the main cause of conflict.
These figures can easily be extrapolated to the rest of the country. The so-called “dop system” in the farming communities of the Western Cape has contributed to large incidents of fetal alcohol syndrome, which causes lifelong physical and mental defects among children. According to the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (Nicro), half of all male prisoners had consumed alcohol at the time of committing their crimes.
South Africa has more than 7-million people living with HIV, one of the highest incidences in the world. People who are drunk are more likely to engage in unprotected sex, forget to take their medication and, because alcohol also depresses the immune system, the abuse fuels the progression of the disease.
The problem of alcohol abuse is so large and all-encompassing it almost defies proper understanding or appreciation; and yet official attempts to deal with it have been halfhearted at best. The main cause is easy access to alcohol, especially in black areas, and lax enforcement of laws that are clearly inadequate. During the height of apartheid, black people were not allowed to either buy alcohol or own businesses. As a result, illegal shebeens or speakeasies mushroomed in black townships and survived despite constant police raids. They are now almost an established fact.
Alcohol is involved in almost 75% of homicides. It also plays a huge role in domestic and gender-based violence
High unemployment has meant more people have resorted to selling liquor to make a living. It's not uncommon to find a tavern in every street, some of them unfortunately close to schools.
Drinking among schoolchildren is on the rise, leading to other social issues such as teenage pregnancies. Stats SA has revealed, for instance, that there were almost 34,000 teenage pregnancies in 2020, with 660 being girls under 13.
The legal drinking age in South Africa is 18, yet of the 21 revellers who died at the Enyobeni tavern in East London two years ago, only one was above 18. Some were as young as 13.
The tragedy is that nobody seems to be talking about this epidemic. It's a sideshow. The country is in the midst of a frenetic election campaign, and yet one of the most pressing social issues does not feature in the discourse at all. The government doesn't seem too concerned about a crisis which is draining the country of its human and economic capital. It doesn't even adequately enforce the laws at its disposal; but is more interested in transformation, which is to open up the alcohol industry to new, preferably black, entrants. That unfortunately only worsens the situation. What is required is restricting, not expanding, access to alcohol. Why not, for instance, introduce legislation similar to that imposed on the tobacco industry? Restriction on alcohol advertising, for instance?
The liquor industry meanwhile is flooding low-income areas with its products and smiling all the way to the bank, oblivious to the social damage caused. It would be nice if they were to show a modicum of social concern. Maybe, given our past and the oppression that went with it, the government may feel reluctant to take steps which could be seen as infringing on people’s freedoms. But sometimes government responsibility is to tell people what they may not want to hear or to take steps that aren't popular but are, in the long run, for the greater good of society.
Alcohol abuse has become a national emergency which requires urgent attention.
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