Archive post. Issued by SAMNET on 25 November 2024, ahead of the 2024 festive season. Published here as part of SAMNET’s advocacy archive.

SAMNET calls on civil society, GBV, healthcare, road safety and other organisations — and on the public — to engage actively in the discussion and to call for stricter legislation, control and enforcement around alcohol.

The measures proposed by the Limpopo SA Police Service have been shown, through pilot studies and research in the Western Cape, to have a significant effect on alcohol abuse and its consequences.

A decade of delay

Stricter alcohol legislation has been stalled for close to a decade, largely through lobbying. Meanwhile research by the SA Medical Research Council and others has established the links between alcohol and gender-based violence, road accidents, poor health, infant development and crime beyond reasonable argument.

What we are asking

We call on the public and on organisations to voice their support for the Limpopo SAPS proposals — and to treat them as a precursor to more stringent measures on advertising, licensing, control and availability.

Our work for safety, social justice, equity, education, health and economic growth will return many times more than any single industry can contribute in jobs or taxes. Alcohol falls hardest on the most vulnerable and the poorest, here and everywhere.

Speak out in support

Write letters. Post video. Engage your politicians, councillors and government officials to register your support.

The lobbyists who earn their living from the industry will be working overtime to undermine the proposal. Support has to be as audible as opposition, or the proposal dies quietly.

Related

Using a University Name to Add Credibility to Alcohol “Research” · Knowing Our Laws · Writing Letters to Counter the False Narrative

Shared by the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) in the interest of stronger alcohol legislation, controls and enforcement, for public safety, health, and social and economic benefit.