Cape Town - Raising the legal drinking age as President Cyril Ramaphosa suggested in his eulogy at the funeral of the 21 teenagers who died at an East London tavern was contained in proposed legislation but abandoned five years ago.
The proposal to raise the drinking age from 18 years to 21 is contained in the Draft Liquor Amendment Bill first mooted in 2016. The process was halted before the bill could be sent to Parliament for consideration.
The Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance SA (SAAPA SA) and 66 civil society alliance partners, colleagues in the public health and research sectors developed an 11-point plan calling on Ramaphosa to act decisively and effectively by taking steps to initiate an urgent response to the crisis – including getting the Liquor Amendment Bill ready to be sent to Parliament.
SAAPA SA spokesperson Terri-Liza Fortein said SAAPA SA and others had regularly called for processing of the bill to resume.
Fortein said they fully supported raising the age limit as there were cogent, evidence-based health and social benefits to do so, but only raising the age of drinking would not achieve anything.
A comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to addressing the issue was needed, she said.
Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance's (GCTCA) deputy chairperson Lester September said raising the drinking age limit formed part of the alliance’s contribution to the National Liquor Act of 2016 public participation as they believed it would contribute to reducing the availability of alcohol.
“But we don't think that goes far enough. We need the 500m proximity rule between liquor outlets and residential areas. It is also important that we have proper guidelines of what is drinking to excess,” he said.
September said for the average person the brain only reached maturity at 35 years, but it was more likely that 21 years old would be more acceptable in broader society.
Molo Songololo director Patric Solomons said substance abuse among teenagers and young people was a serious problem.
He said the East London tavern incident highlighted the lack of accountability by the authorities, the liquor board, licensing department, producers, distributors and sellers, and police for their neglect of duty to enforce the law on the sale of alcohol to minors.
SA National Civic Organisation Parklands co-ordinator Buntu Gwija said while it was good to debate the age limit there were some concerns.
“If we have a legal age of 18 years for a South African to vote and have a 19-year-old who can consent to abortion, you have already made that a constitutional obligation, but then you increase the age limit for access to alcohol to 21 years, one would consider that as two steps forward and one step back.
“We need to be decisive in our understanding of legal age in respect of a constitutional prerogative, because you have granted an 18-year-old a constitutional prerogative by participating in the lawmaking process through voting but still exclude this individual from deciding on whether he or she has a right to drink or not,” he said.
Gwija said what Ramaphosa had drawn the country’s attention to was the issue of a community and drug or alcohol abuse forum, where communities could take the centre stage to be part of the solution.
“It is very difficult to put legislation on morality. Morality needs a whole range of other things where the community has to be involved, but guidance is necessary.
“Policing is necessary insofar as community development but the legal age is something that we should not touch because we’ve already dealt with it in our Constitution,” he said.
Sanco in the province would attend to this within various communities and start looking at ways in which it could formulate strategies to combat the problem, he said.