Packers load purchased alcohol into a customer's vehicle, 1 June 2020, at the Makro Liquor Store, Strubensvalley, in Roodepoort, on the first day South Africa moved to Level 3 lockdown as part of its efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Picture: Michel Bega
We have been complaining, loud and long, that the government has been clueless in imposing the lockdown restrictions.
Yet the appalling behaviour of boozers, who are back to causing the bloody mayhem they usually do, has proved the government was correct in banning alcohol sales for the past nine weeks.
Hospital casualty departments are again filling up with the victims of violence or car accidents all caused, directly or indirectly, by irresponsible alcohol consumption. This is just at the time we need as many free hospital beds as possible to cope with the rise in Covid-19 infections.
To be sure, not all consumers of alcohol behave like children let loose in a sweet shop – but this reckless attitude among a significant proportion of our population should give us all pause for thought.
We complain that the government doesn’t trust us with behaving like responsible citizens – and then we show that we can’t be relied upon to do the right thing … and that the only measures we seem to react to are restriction or force.
Even when Covid-19 is behind us, we still need to realise: drunken bums end up in the gutter … and that fate awaits us as a country unless we mend our ways.
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