Transform SA Online has in its custody the recent Government Gazette in which a raft of measures aimed at curbing South Africans’ major social ill, rampant alcohol abuse, as part of the Liquor Policy Review are listed. But has the government gone to the extreme in its efforts? Statistical evidence suggests it hasn’t.
The following are some of the overlooked effects of alcohol abuse:
- South Africans drink 5 billion litres of alcoholic drinks a year.
- We are ranked fourth by the World Health Organisation on a list of countries with the riskiest drinking patterns.
- Alcohol is the most commonly abused drug in South Africa.
- The cost of alcohol abuse is estimated to be 2% of gross domestic product – it was R19bn in 2004.
- Ever more children are born with foetal alcohol syndrome.
- Alcohol is the third-largest contributor to death and disability after sexually transmitted infections and interpersonal violence.
- 36 840 deaths in 2009 were related to alcohol.
- R116bn was spent by the health sector in 2009 to prevent and treat diseases and injuries associated with alcohol abuse.
- About 40% of the population drink alcohol, but only 10% are believed to be abusing it.
