Cape Town to crack down on alcohol non-compliance during festive season

The City of Cape Cape Town will be closely eyeing liquor outlets this festive season, as alcohol-related trauma incidents could place an unnecessary burden on the city’s hospitals amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, the City’s Safety and Security and Community Services and Health Directorates held a briefing addressing the City’s 2020/21 festive season preparedness plan, discussing new implementations that would be taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Cape Town mayco member JP Smith said operational plans would be put in place for big days such as New Year’s Eve.

“The South African Police Services, along with the City services, will put an operational plan in place for each of these big days,” said Smith.

“When the curfew starts, we will require people not to be on the streets”, he added.

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Smith said that at the moment, the least of their concerns was that people would not be allowed to celebrate New Year’s Eve as before.

In addition to the new plan, the City would be visiting at least three alcohol outlets a day in each suburb to monitor compliance, in a bid to decrease the spate of alcohol-related incidents.

Law enforcement visited 69 outlets in October and 85 in November, checking for compliance.

This would also ensure that hospitals were not clogged up by alcohol-related trauma.

Beaches, swimming pools

Addressing the accessibility of recreational parks and beaches, councillor Zahid Badroodien said the public would have to work closely with the recreation and parks department to make sure that all the regulations were adhered to.

“The City has about 370km of coastline and a number of beaches and tidal pools along the length of the City,” he said.

He said that at all these various locations, facility staff, lifeguards and identikits would be available over the festive season.

Badroodien also emphasised that beach goers should try to come dressed for the beach to minimise interaction in the changing rooms.

With the Covid-19 regulations, the pools were only able to take about 50% of the usual number of patrons.

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“If you have any symptoms or know of anyone who has had Covid-19 within a short space of time, or if you are waiting for test results, please don’t come to any of our public facilities,” urged Badroodien.

The City was expected to have over 600 lifeguards that would be placed; 340 of whom would be located seasonally on the beaches, while 300 would be based at swimming pools.

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