Govt needs to play police, say experts of new booze ban

The ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco was bound to have consequence for the fiscus and a ripple effect in the value chain of other businesses – a development which could have been averted had government implemented stringent measures in policing human misbehaviour during Level 3, experts said.

According to economist Mike Schussler, the erosion of the country’s tax base due to the alcohol ban amounted to a billion-rand loss monthly “just from alcohol sales alone”.

“It is quite a big industry in terms of manufacturing, distribution and sales, where you are talking a 2% of the national consumer spending – and that has now gone out the window with possible job losses,” warned Schussler.

Last year alone, SA raked in R15 billion in tax revenue on the sale of beer, R8.3 billion on wine and other fermented beverages, with sorghum beer bringing in R4.5 billion.

“There is no way restaurants can continue without serving alcohol,” Schussler said. While he conceded the country had seen incidents associated with alcohol abuse, he argued that government could have imposed stringent policing measures rather than outright ban alcohol and tobacco.

“On alcohol policing, they could have had more roadblocks to test drinking and driving; as well as consequences for beating someone up while you were drunk. No doubt, better policing would have helped,” he said.

Wines of South Africa spokesperson Maryna Calow said the industry, which employed about 300 000 workers, anticipated R250 million weekly losses on local sales. This week’s announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa, “really took the industry by surprise”, she said.

“At no point during our ongoing talks with the department of trade and industry was there an indication that the ban would be reinstated.”

On driving behavioural change, Calow said: “We need to change the thinking that alcohol should be drunk to excess as well as drunk driving. There should be zero tolerance for drunk driving, but this needs to be enforced and policed by government. We can’t take all of that responsibility.”

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