The Western Cape’s minister of Community Safety, Albert Fritz, says that his provincial department plans to make amendments to the Western Cape Liquor Act.<\/p>\n
Fritz said his department has been tasked with amending the act as a part of its a plan to halve the murder rate in the province over the next 10 years. The amendments are further aligned with Premier Alan Winde\u2019s Smart Interventions aimed at reducing alcohol related harms (ARH), he said.<\/p>\n
“During the lockdown, my department monitored the number of homicides which demonstrated that at the beginning of the lockdown, the murder rate had been halved.<\/p>\n
“However, as we moved into alert levels 4 and 3, the murder figures increased but then again slightly decreased as the ban on alcohol and the curfew was reinstituted,” he said.<\/p>\n
Fritz said that these are not sustainable interventions as they had a major impact on the province’s economy and contribute to unemployment in vulnerable communities.<\/p>\n
Instead, Fritz said that the province was looking to introduce the following changes:<\/p>\n
“As per the legislative process, the proposed amendments will be put forward to the provincial cabinet who will scrutinise and debate its contents.<\/p>\n
“Thereafter, it will be prepared by legal services and be published in the Provincial Gazette for public input for a period of 21 days. The Bill will then be referred to the Provincial Parliament for debating and finalisation,” said Fritz.<\/p>\n
Push for national changes<\/strong><\/p>\n The provincial changes follow a push<\/a> <\/strong>by the Democratic Alliance at a national level to introduce the Liquor Amendment Bill as a means of grappling with the country\u2019s alcohol-related problems.<\/p>\n The DA\u2019s Dean Macpherson said that the draft legislation has effectively been stuck in cabinet for the last four years, despite having the potential to introduce a number of regulations which could reduce the damage caused by excessive alcohol consumption in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile not perfect, the bill will allow MPs to work towards dealing with issues like access to liquor by minors and provinces being able to levy taxes on sales to fund cost recovery models, \u201d he said.<\/p>\n This view is supported by Southern Africa Alcohol Policy Alliance (SAAPA) director Maurice Smithers, who told\u00a0TimesLive<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>that the bill should be fast-tracked alongside new regulations around\u00a0drunk driving<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernment themselves acknowledge that there is an issue with the way alcohol is consumed, and it is now critical. We are baffled as to why they don\u2019t take the tools they already have and deal with this problem,\u201d Smithers said.<\/p>\n