The South African Breweries hopes that youth in Alexandra, a township ravaged by crime, drugs and alcohol abuse, can learn from their peers about the dangers of underage drinking.
Speaking at the launch of season two of the the 13-episode reality TV show, Future Leaders, which airs on SABC 1 in October, the brewery’s corporate affairs director Monwabisi Fandeso said they were aware of social problems associated with alcohol and drug abuse in Alexandra, and other areas of the country.
“This is why we have chosen to put ourselves on the frontline of the attack on alcohol abuse and underage drinking,” said Fandeso. “We have gone all out to fight this scourge and will continue to do so in whatever platform we can. It’s not beneficial for the underage to drink alcohol under any circumstances.”
Although the programme does not feature any youths from Alexandra in its episodes, Fandeso said he hoped youth and teenagers in this township and other areas of the country could learn from their peers about the dangers of underage drinking.
Another speaker Jason Levin, MD of Bryanston-based youth marketing agency HDI, which has partnered with the brewery and the National Youth Development Agency in the Future Leaders project, which is an extension of the brewery’s You Decide initiative that seeks to curb underage drinking, spoke about the dichotomy of the South African Breweries as proponents of encouraging the drinking of alcohol.
“Yes, they are the producers of this harmful product, but they don’t want you to drink if you are under 18, pregnant and about to drive,” said Levin. “You can drink and not binge and abuse alcohol if you are over 18. If I and many of us in this launch had decided to drink at a tender age, we would not have achieved our goals and dreams.”
Yershen Pillay of the National Youth Development Agency, urged the youth “not to turn to the bottle when times are hard, but to turn to their books”. He urged parents to stand firm and tell their children what to watch on TV and what to indulge in.
