The tragic death of 21 young people at the Enyobeni tavern in East London, Eastern Cape, in July 2022 prompted Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa to consider raising the legal drinking age to 21 years.
While such proposed laws should be welcomed, without proper enforcement the desired outcome cannot be achieved.
The consumption of alcohol by youngsters is detrimental to their physical health and educational progress. Raising the legal drinking age on its own, however, is insufficient to deter them from excessive alcohol consumption. South Africa already has the necessary legislative framework in place to ensure alcohol-free workplaces and roads, but extending this protection to the youth will necessitate much stricter law enforcement.
According to aware.org, 50% of South African teenagers drink alcohol. Globally, alcohol is a leading risk factor for death and disability among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years. Several factors influence alcohol abuse, including accessibility and affordability of the substance, along with indiscriminate and irresponsible marketing.
In 2015, it was estimated that between 27 000 and 103 000 people in SA died due to alcohol. In other words, between 74 and 282 adult deaths were related to alcohol per day. The country’s alcohol problem was highlighted throughout the Covid-19 lockdown period.
While increasing the legal age limit for alcohol consumption can be beneficial, such measures will likely be pointless without the proper backing of the police and liquor licensing boards. The fact that alcohol can be sold to individuals as young as ten years of age shows a clear lack of legal enforcement, even with the current drinking age in place.
The habits of our youth are shaped by their parents, compromising the future of our country. Children who see their parents engage in excessive alcohol consumption start to believe that is the norm and follow this type of example. Once grown, these children, in turn, teach the acceptability of this culture of excess to their own children.
From an awareness and educational perspective, there needs to be an accreditation of school-based prevention programmes, which will improve the quality of the outcomes delivered. Government also has a responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient treatment programmes available for young people with dependency issues.
Along with these preventative steps, stricter enforcement measures should include more frequent inspections of liquor outlets to ensure compliance with licensing regulations, as well as increased criminal penalties for contravening regulations.
For people buying alcohol by means of on-demand, home delivery grocery apps, there must be a mandatory verification of age at the time of purchase and delivery.
To further clamp down on drinking among the youth, it has been suggested that a system be implemented, whereby drivers aged 18 to 21 years are not permitted to test positive for any alcohol when driving, and that this be strictly enforced through more frequent roadblocks.
– Rhys Evans is the managing director of ALCO-Safe
