Fake booze ban lays bare no trust

The fact that thousands of people flocked to bottle stores earlier this week, to stock up in the face of a supposed threat by government to reimpose the booze sales ban, says disturbing things about South African society.

The belief was sparked by a WhatsApp voice note, which claimed that President Cyril Ramaphosa was going to address the nation on Tuesday night to announce the reinstatement of the restriction. In consequence, bottle stores were besieged by people panic-buying in scenes some retailers described as never before seen.

That people jumped immediately to the conclusion that the message was genuine does, indeed, speak to a common gullibility in the age of a deeply interconnected world. This is a world where fake news spreads much faster than the truth, because it is outrageous and because few people bother to question it.

Yet, much more importantly, people were taken in because the spectre of an instant booze shutdown, delivered without any prior warning – and after all outlets had closed for the day – was something they had seen, and experienced, with the reinstatement of the initial alcohol sales ban on 12 July.

On that occasion, Ramaphosa left it to a Sunday night – long after all stores had closed – to inform his “fellow South Africans” that they were going dry for the foreseeable future.

And, when someone – especially the president of a country – does that sort of “sneaky” thing to his own people, however noble the intentions may have been, how can you blame people for thinking “you fooled me once, but you won’t fool me twice…”? South Africans, of all persuasions, simply don’t trust the government and what it says.

That is a huge problem, not only for societal cohesion but also for governance in a country where people are increasingly ignoring authority.

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