President Cyril Ramaphosa says that his government will look at the introduction of new regulations around the sale of alcohol in South Africa, but he may already have ready-made legislation waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa told the\u00a0Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong> that the temporary restrictions that were introduced under the adjusted level 3 lockdown have demonstrated the extent to which abuse of alcohol fuels violence, trauma and reckless behaviour.<\/p>\n \u201cThe legislative part is something that we need to look at very closely to see how do we begin to \u2026 reduce the abuse of alcohol,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could revolve around things like age limits; we need to deal with age limits, to raise the age limit. Or do we need to look at trading hours for the purchase of alcohol, do we need to look at things like taxation?\u201d<\/p>\n However, the opposition Democratic Alliance has highlighted that the Liquor Amendment Bill was first mooted nearly five years ago and includes many of these proposed changes.<\/p>\n The DA said that Ramaphosa was the leader of government business when it was introduced in 2016 and has been the president for the last three years while it has not moved from his cabinet.<\/p>\n “If the president is serious about fast-tracking this bill, the DA is ready to do the work, make constructive proposals and come up with solutions that will balance both lives and livelihoods. The ball is in his court,” it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n The Draft Liquor Amendment Bill proposes a number of\u00a0 wide-reaching changes including:<\/p>\n In addition, the Traffic Amendment Bill has already been approved<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>by President Cyril Ramaphosa and was originally set to be introduced before the end of 2020.<\/p>\n Alongside a number of other traffic-related offences, it will create a\u00a0zero-tolerance approach<\/strong> to drunk driving.<\/p>\n This means it introduces a total prohibition for the use and consumption of alcohol by all motor vehicle operators on South Africa\u2019s public roads.<\/p>\n\n