'New booze laws will do more harm than good'

The proposal to raise SA’s drinking age from 18 to 21 is not feasible and will hurt small businesses, according to the FMF think-tank and Nafcoc.

Johannesburg - The proposal to raise South Africa’s drinking age from 18 to 21 is not feasible and will hurt small businesses.

This was the assertion of the Free Market Foundation (FMF) think-tank and the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) on Tuesday.

A revised policy on the matter is due before Parliament later this month, after the Department of Trade and Industry made public a draft of its National Liquor Policy last year. Parliament is expected to consider the policy in July.

FMF executive director Leon Louw said the proposed law harkens back to apartheid, when black South Africans were prohibited from buying and drinking hard liquor.

“(It is) distressing to see us going back to the past, back to the apartheid era of draconian controls and lack of respect for South African civilians, especially young adults,” he said.

The original policy proposals include raising the drinking age to 21; alignment with the Control of Marketing of Alcoholic Beverages Bill, which restricts advertising and prohibition of sponsorship and marketing of alcohol; liquor premises to be at least 500m from schools, places of worship and residential areas; and “harmonisation of national and provincial laws on liquor”.

Nafcoc chairman Lawrence Mavundla said most black people make their living working as driving taxis, vending on the street and retailing at taverns. The proposed regulations were unrealistic, especially for township businesses, which were mainly black owned.

“When you see the government imposing restrictions (on small businesses), you then wonder: Where are we going with economic freedom in our lifetime?” Mavundla said.

“It will not happen if we disallow small businesses from starting and prospering.”

He said regulations requiring liquor vendors to be in a zoned area would unfairly affect township business because townships were not zoned. The real problem was not alcohol, he said, but crime due to ineffective policing.

Louw said the proposal cited several false and misleading statistics about the effect of a lower drinking age and alcohol use on crime and road accidents. He said the 21 drinking age in countries like the US had pushed young people to abuse alcohol.

Louw and Mavundla plan to meet the ANC's economic and research units and the Department of Trade and Industry to discuss the proposal. Louw believed the proposal was potentially unconstitutional, and Nafcoc would challenge the proposal in court if necessary.

olivia.exstrum@inl.co.za

@OliviaExstrum

The Star