The Eastern Cape has 7,500 registered liquor outlets and only 16 inspectors to check if they are compliant with the laws.
It means that each inspector, who is supposed to carry out pre- and post-inspections, is responsible for 468 establishments.
This number does not include those that are operating illegally. Plans are under way to increase the number of inspectors to 21.
The Eastern Cape Liquor Board admitted that given the huge number of establishments and the limited resources at hand, it cannot win the war against underage drinking on its own.
Today, marks the first anniversary of the Enyobeni tavern tragedy in Scenery Park, East London, where 21 schoolchildren died.
The tragedy made international headlines, with the scourge of underage drinking and the selling and supplying of alcohol to minors taking centre stage.
The owner and manager of Enyobeni have been charged with contravening the Liquor Act.
The liquor board said Scenery Park alone had 19 liquor outlets, while the Buffalo City Metro has just over 1,000.
“Clearly we cannot on day-to-day basis monitor every liquor outlet, hence we urge members of the community to always report liquor outlets that are suspected of wrongdoing to the [board],” board CEO Dr Nombuyiselo Makala said.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, Makala said she was convinced the Enyobeni tragedy would act as a deterrent.
However, there has been an increase in underage drinking cases.
The “repugnant pens down culture”, she said, was a big contributor to the problem.
A new trend has emerge of pupils hosting parties to celebrate the end of the school term where alcohol is either sold or served.
“To our astonishment, [Enyobeni] was never a lesson enough to restrain our young people from continuing to indulge in alcohol,” Makala said.
“Disappointingly, shortly after the Enyobeni incident, we started to receive reports of more pens down parties being planned in some parts of the province, including Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay metros.”
One of the Enyobeni survivors, in a candid interview with the Daily Dispatch, said she while that fateful day would forever remain etched in her memory, she still enjoyed going out with her friends. She is 17; turning 18 in August this year.
“I went back to my drinking ways and I still go to taverns and liquor retail shops. No-one is asking for my ID when I visit liquor outlets.
“I still have flashbacks of the incident but that has not stopped me from drinking alcohol,” she said.
Makala said young people start experimenting with alcohol from the age of 13.
Buffalo City spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the city had conducted a programme to clamp down on taverns and spaza shops that are “endangering our people in Scenery Park”.
“We will return again, to follow up on some of the fines and notices issued to see if there are improvements,” Ngwenya said.
A Daily Dispatch team visited 10 liquor outlets in Duncan Village, Scenery Park, Quigney, the East London CBD, Berea and Nahoon last week.
Of the establishments visited, only one had a guard at the door. Patrons could freely enter.
The Dispatch witnessed a number of young people enter some of these establishments, but none of them were asked to show identification.
The liquor board said in the 2022/2023 financial year, it closed down 358 illegal liquor outlets.
A total of 140 traders were issued with notices to appear in court with an option to pay a fine.
The fine for trading without a licence is R5,000 for first-time offenders. Those caught a second time risk going to court.
The Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in SA, a public health NGO dedicated to reducing alcohol harm in the country, said a year after the Enyobeni tragedy, there were still “no material changes ... to national and provincial legislation to prevent this scenario from repeating itself”.
The alliance’s Aadielah Maker-Diedericks said the tragic death of 21 youngsters could have been avoided if the law was upheld.
“Minors under the age of 18 cannot legally purchase alcohol but this is a practice that is commonplace in many SA communities,” she said.
“Underage drinking however is a symptom of a much larger problem and a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to addressing alcohol harm in its entirety is needed.
“We already have a national liquor policy. What is needed is to translate the policy into law, nationally and provincially.
“It immensely concerns us that alcohol is increasingly accessible and available from various sources, including within family settings, and this inevitably increases alcohol use among underage people.”
The liquor board last year launched an ambassador programme to encourage peer-to-peer underage drinking education.
“We have already launched this programme in Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City, OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo municipalities,” Makala said.
“To date the ambassador programme has been launched in 73 schools and 292 pupils have been inducted as ambassadors.
“In line with this programme, participating schools nominate four pupils [two boys and two girls] to be inducted as ambassadors.”
The board encouraged communities to reports incident of underage drinking or violation of licence conditions to its toll-free line 080-000-0420 or they can send a WhatsApp message to 076-403-6223.
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