SA needs more than ‘drink responsibly’ to tackle alcohol-related harm, says SAAPA - IOL

SAAPA SA is calling for stronger action on alcohol-related harm, including tougher controls on pricing, advertising, availability and enforcement, ahead of the National Alcohol Summit.

South Africa needs to move beyond telling people to “drink responsibly” and confront the price, availability and marketing of alcohol if it wants to reduce the harm linked to drinking, according to the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in South Africa (SAAPA SA).

The call comes ahead of the National Alcohol Summit, which will bring government, civil society, researchers, youth organisations and communities together at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg from 1 to 3 October.

The summit comes amid concern over alcohol’s contribution to road deaths, violence, injury and pressure on health services, as well as harmful drinking among young people and alcohol use during pregnancy.

Nomcebo Dlamini, SAAPA SA campaign director, said awareness campaigns had a role but needed to be backed by stronger policy measures.

“I think one of the biggest gaps in South Africa’s response is that we continue to treat alcohol harm largely as an issue of individual behaviour, when the evidence shows that the environment in which people drink also matters,” Dlamini said.

She said the country needed a broader public health response that included stronger alcohol taxation, restrictions on advertising and promotion, better regulation of trading hours and outlet density, tougher action against drink-driving and improved access to treatment.

“This is not about removing individual responsibility. It is about recognising that individual choices are influenced by the broader social and commercial environment,” she said.

The three-day summit, hosted under SAAPA SA’s True Cost of Alcohol Campaign with coalition partners, will take place under the theme “What Needs to Change? Reimagining South Africa’s Response to Alcohol Harm”.

It will coincide with World No Alcohol Day on 2 October.

The gathering also comes as National Treasury reviews fiscal policy aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm, placing alcohol pricing and taxation firmly on the policy agenda.

One of the issues expected to feature strongly is the price of alcohol.

Dlamini said SAAPA wanted alcohol taxation to be treated not only as a way of raising revenue but also as a public health measure.

“We would like government to ensure that excise duties keep pace with inflation and income growth and that the tax structure takes account of the amount of pure alcohol in a product,” she said.

SAAPA also supports consideration of minimum unit pricing, which would set a floor below which a unit of alcohol could not be sold and would be aimed particularly at very cheap alcohol.

Excise duties on alcohol were increased by 3.4% in the 2026 Budget, in line with expected inflation.

Earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa said government was consulting on measures including minimum unit pricing or higher excise duties and stronger restrictions on alcohol advertising. He also called on provinces to consider limiting liquor-outlet density and trading hours.

Advertising restrictions were important because of the role marketing could play in the visibility and normalisation of alcohol, particularly among young people, while trading hours and the number of outlets in communities also needed attention, Dlamini said.

Dlamini said restrictions should also address digital marketing, where alcohol promotion can reach consumers through social media and other online platforms.

She argued that advertising controls needed to keep pace with changes in how alcohol was marketed, particularly where younger people could be exposed to promotional content.

The approach broadly reflects the World Health Organization’s SAFER framework, which identifies five priority areas: restricting alcohol availability, strengthening drink-driving measures, improving access to screening and treatment, restricting advertising and promotion, and raising prices through taxation and other pricing policies.

The WHO describes taxation and pricing policies as among the most effective and cost-effective measures available to governments to reduce harmful alcohol use.

Dlamini acknowledged concerns that higher taxes and tighter alcohol controls could affect businesses and jobs or encourage illicit trade.

“Any policy intervention should consider its economic consequences and should be accompanied by effective enforcement,” she said.

But she argued that the economic discussion also had to take into account the costs alcohol-related harm imposed on families, employers, the health system, criminal justice system and wider economy.

On illicit trade, she said changes to taxation would need to be accompanied by stronger enforcement and improved tax collection.

“So the question should not be regulation versus the economy,” Dlamini said. “It should be how we design effective regulation while protecting legitimate businesses, strengthening enforcement and reducing the wider economic costs of alcohol-related harm.”

Dlamini said South Africa had had “no shortage of policy discussions” on alcohol, but the challenge was turning those discussions into sustained implementation, coordination and accountability.

Alcohol-related harm cut across health, transport, policing, trade, finance, social development and provincial liquor regulation, making coordination between departments essential, she said.

The summit plans to develop a Call to Action and Accountability Framework setting out responsibilities and ways of measuring progress after delegates leave Constitution Hill.

Dlamini wants it to contain measurable commitments on taxation and pricing, advertising, trading hours, outlet density, drink-driving, prevention and treatment, together with clear timelines and responsibility for implementation.

Progress, she said, could then be assessed through indicators such as alcohol affordability, exposure to marketing, compliance with trading-hour rules, road crashes and fatalities, hospital admissions and access to treatment.

“The real test will be what happens afterwards. Accountability means that we should be able to return six or 12 months later and ask: What was promised? What has been implemented? What has changed? And where has progress stalled?” Dlamini said.