05 Oct 2016 Reactions to new draft Liquor Amendment Bill

The bill proposes to raise the legal minimum drinking age‚ curb liquor advertising and make people who sell it to intoxicated customers liable for civil damages if the person commits an offence.

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies opened the proposals to public scrutiny and comment on Monday for 45 days‚ saying drastic measures were needed to stop alcohol abuse.

The 21-year-olds rule will never be policed‚ parents should take more responsibility for children’s behaviour‚ it’s a great idea‚ teens will find creative way to get their hands on booze — these are just a fraction of the views that have since aired on radio and social media.

Justice4All? asked on Twitter‚ “How does raising drinking age to 21 stop boozing in this country? How will that even be policed since age 18 limit couldn’t be policed?”

SA ranks among the worst offenders when it comes to the quantity of alcohol consumed as a nation. TMG Digital reported in May that pure alcohol consumption in SA was ranked at 11.5 litre per capita per year — nearly double the average of six litres consumed on the African continent — in 2015‚ according to the WHO.

Morris Smithers‚ national coordinator for the South African chapter of the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance‚ favours more stringent curbs on alcohol advertising‚ in addition to the minimum age…..

BDLive.co.za: Read the full article

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If the Liquor Amendment Bill is anything to go by, thinking about liquor makes some politicians and bureaucrats more intoxicated than drinking it, writes an unimpressed Leon Louw, executive director of the Free Market Foundation.

They become incoherent megalomaniacs with delusional conceptions of causality. They think billboards advertising liquor on straight roads are better than ones near corners (as opposed to an intersections); that they know when 20-year-olds (as opposed to 21-year-olds) listen to radios; that people old enough to be the president are too young for wine with meals; that people who provide liquor should be vicariously liable for crimes unrelated to liquor; and that “the National Liquor Regulator must the minister may delegate powers …” (sic) is English.

One of the nuttiest provisions reads: “The … distributor who distribute(s) to a retailer who does not have a licence is liable for death of any natural person.”

In their intoxicated stupor, they forget what they were told a few months ago. The bill repeats manifestly crazy provisions in last year’s Liquor Policy, such as the prohibition of liquor premises within 500m of residential areas or transport facilities.

Does anyone know of premises zoned for business purposes, specifically for liquor, more than half a kilometre from a residential area or transport facility?

The bill in effect bans liquor in most, if not all, shopping centres, hotels and restaurants. It precludes liquor in or near airports, bus stops, taxi ranks, train stations and ports. In case someone thinks liquor will be allowed at country clubs or sports clubs, that too will be banned.

How about Sun City? No, there are staff residences. Cape Town’s Waterfront? No, it has a harbour. Resorts include, or are near, road transport facilities, have —or are surrounded by — residences, and provide recreation.

Famous wine routes are, by definition, verboten. They are served by tourism transport facilities, and have recreational areas, staff residences and nearby bus stops or stations.

Liquor enterprises will also have to be far from schools, places of worship, public institutions, rehabilitation or treatment centres, intersections and any other “like amenity”, whatever all that means.

Superficially, that is coherent even if nuts, but if you pause long enough to use another synapse, you will realise that places of worship include chapels at wedding venues and prayer rooms in multistory buildings.

Public institutions include post offices and clinics in shopping centres. Schools include small public, private, church and community institutions, and other schools almost everywhere.

Consider yourself blessed in the unlikely event that you know somewhere where it will be lawful to produce, store, distribute or sell liquor…..

BDLive.co.za: Read the full commentary