SA ranks sixth in the world when it comes to boozing

Should South Africans worry about their alcohol consumption? According to the latest published data, South African alcohol consumers are among some of the heaviest drinkers globally.

The 2021 data tracked levels of alcohol consumption in 2016 showing an estimated 31% of the population aged 15 and older consumed alcohol, with the majority (69%) abstaining for at least 12 months.

According to the World Population Review, South Africa’s drinking population consumed 29.9 litres of pure alcohol per capita per year, which is the sixth-highest consumption rate in the world, below Namibia (32.4l), Eswatini (34.4l), Maldives (33.7l) and Tunisia (36.6l).

On Sunday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa moved the country to adjusted level three, which included lifting the ban of alcohol sales.

The SA Medical Research Council’s Charles Parry said the reason for high levels of stress when there was a lack of alcohol was because there were dependent drinkers in society.

“Both moderate and heavy users of alcohol and dependent drinkers required access to alcohol and were frustrated when supplies are cut off, as were people involved in the liquor trade – directly and indirectly – who suffered when alcohol sales were constrained,” he said.

Parry added that different departments of government were responsible for addressing high alcohol consumption.

“What we needed was for government, national and provincial, to be more serious about addressing heavy drinking so that we didn’t have to rely on full liquor sales bans which, while very effective in reducing alcohol-related trauma and freeing up hospital capacity to treat Covid patients, were a fairly blunt instrument which affected everyone, including moderate drinkers and responsible producers/traders,” he said.

Director for the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in SA Maurice Smithers said stress and lack of recreational facilities in communities were the cause of people turning to alcohol.

“The stress of life in general is the reason people turn to alcohol. For example, poor and unemployed people stressed about economic troubles, which contributed to why they probably drank.

“These were also the same people who lived in historically black townships and informal settlements which were areas that had fewer community facilities, sports recreational centres and other places that would give people an option to do things with their lives other than consuming alcohol,” he said.

Smithers added the involvement of government and legislative amendments would help deal with the high consumption of alcohol.

“A good example is how the tobacco legislation amendment made a difference. Legislation introduced in 1999, changed the way in which tobacco was used in South Africa, fundamentally, from before. We need to take the first step, get the process going.”

– asandam@citizen.co.za