Is the ANC pushing for a third alcohol ban?
27 August 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has been reliably informed that there is a strong lobby within the ANC by certain Ministers to reintroduce another ban on alcohol as soon as possible.
This group of Ministers include Police Minister Bheki Cele, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Over the last few days, Minister Mbalula has led the public charge in claiming that the laws need to be "reviewed" after a number of alleged alcohol-related car crashes. He has also said that “people are out of control in terms of alcohol”. These accidents and lives lost are tragic but should not be used to drive a political ideology as we suspect.
We are also seeing a push by the Gauteng Health department to claim that hospitals are "under pressure" due to alcohol-related trauma and taking up hospital beds, despite declining Covid infections and deaths. This however is a false narrative as even under the best circumstances, hospitals in ANC-run provinces are short of beds due to chronic under-investment and corruption.