Sponsored Links:
INLSA
Photo: Leon Nicholas
The government has set up a high-powered task team of top officials to investigate ways of regulating the alcohol producing industry.
This comes as pressure is mounting from some departments for a ban on all alcohol advertising, with others seeking limitations on sponsorship, sales hours and opportunities and a raising of the alcohol purchasing age from 18 to 21.
An outright advertising ban – heavily supported by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini – would cost the industry about R2.6 billion a year with mass media revenue cut by about R1.8bn for above-the-line advertising, according to marketing and media analyst Chris Moerdyk.
But Motsoaledi has come out fighting, describing his department’s campaign as being “at war” with alcohol in a Special Assignment programme last week. He said the next step “is to introduce legislation to control the harmful effects of alcohol, including the banning of alcohol advertising”.
This followed on his parliamentary budget vote speech in which he said: “The need for targeting tobacco and alcohol has already been outlined and no matter how many financially powerful people and institutions make noise about it, I can stake my life on it… we are going to fight with our bare knuckles to achieve this, particularly a ban on advertising of tobacco and alcohol. It’s a point of no return and the sooner the tobacco and alcohol industry understand this, the better.”
Last December Dlamini said drastic legislation was needed to combat alcohol abuse. She hinted at the time that it could include a ban on alcohol advertising, a moratorium on new liquor licences and making drinking before driving illegal.
Social Development Department chief director Connie Nxumalo sketched the history of proposed restrictions on the liquor industry.
She said a summit on alcohol and drug abuse had been held in Durban in March – which included provincial governments, the national government, trade unions and the central drug authority – and had passed resolutions which included a proposal to ban the sponsorship of booze brands at sports, arts and cultural events.
A technical team from her department, with 10 other government departments including Trade and Industry (dti), Higher and Basic Education and Transport was drawing up policy proposals on ways “to harmonise laws and policies for effective governance of liquor” with the emphasis on restricting the accessibility to liquor, and cutting of trading hours. A draft report had been circulated in an interministerial committee and it was still to be placed before the cabinet.
Nxumalo did not think that new legislation or regulations would be ready before next year, but there were some “quick fix” proposals which might be ready by early next year. The dti was reviewing the regulations applying to the industry, looking at managing liquor outlets and their hours of operation.
Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use spokesman Adrian Botha said no convincing evidence existed that banning advertising reduced consumption.
Moerdyk said brand leaders would in fact benefit from an advertising ban by increasing market share “at the expense of lesser-placed brands”.
He put the potential loss of jobs through a ban at 2 500 low-earner employers mainly in the print and out-of-home sectors, “as well as sports marketing and management companies”. He added there would be an estimated R280 million value-added tax revenue loss to the fiscus. “Loss of above-the-line advertising revenue for mass media would be R1bn,” Moerdyk said. He added there would be a “deleterious impact on the SABC”, which would lose about R400m a year in revenue. DStv and e.tv would lose about R500m.
The balance would be lost by radio stations, lifestyle magazines and newspapers. The loss of revenue including sponsorship, sports development leveraging, events and below-the-line activities would be about R2.6bn. - Donwald Pressly
|
|
Waste of time, wrote
Instead of chasing down murderers and racists and protecting our farmers the Govt chooses to waste its time on this rubbish!! Banning advertising will not in any way change consumptions patterns anymore than an outright ban would!! Stop wasting our tax money on this rubbish and do some worthwhile work for a change!!!!!
White Rhino, wrote
For a change I agree with our Minister, alcohol is in most cases the root element in domestic violence, sexual abuse and not to mention road carnage, people can cry as much as they see fit but even 2,6 Billion Rand cannot buy back your virginity nor the son you lost in a car accident, it's time our country works on getting morals back!!
Tshikare Tau, wrote
Just create employment for those who will be directly or indirectly affected.We all know the effects of tobacco and alcohol abuse but engaging all the relevant stake holders would lessen the resistance from the puplic. Mind you you are in the office earning tax payers money. Why not have their input before deciding on something that can affect their livelihood. Sure Comdare
Deelman, wrote
Why target alcohol products with such aggression. If used by an adult in moderation, it is a product that can be good for your health. The big concern is when the lack of advertising causes a decline in sales. What will happen to the labour in the agricultural sector, earning their daily bread by working on wine farms? Not to mention the impact on the glass, cork, labelling, export and transport industries. Is it really worth plunging families into poverty to make a point?
Anne, wrote
If alcohol was only sold during certain hours thousands of people would not be able to buy it. Say between 10h00 and 12h00 and 14h00 and 16h00 on Monday to Thursday only.
Collitjies, wrote
So what, there will be less fatal accidents, alcohol related abuse and murders. This was not brought up when cigarette advertising was totally banned as the job losses then must have been also substantial with loss of revenue to the SABC, Dstv and radio plus news papers etc.
confused, wrote
Has the government really thought this through. i mean for Tv channels that means loss of AR and who will they get too fill those spaces, which might mean loss in shows due to insufficient AR revenue. secondly what about all the entrepreneurs that have businesses built around the advertising of alcohol, oh wait no more job for you and you and you. really dont think the companies are too phased but watch this come back too haunt the man on the streets pockest like everything else the super efficient government initiates, (JHB Tolling just too name one)
Sean Redmond, wrote
Ringmaster, wrote
Alcohol abuse is one of the bigger problems this country faces and many accidents, abuse and crimes are related to the consumption of alcohol. Examine the findings of David Nutt for details. It would be better for society if alcohol was unavailable, but I doubt that banning the advertising would solve any problems. Many years ago when TV was in it's infancy, SABCTV undertook to NOT advertise alcohol, so here we go again.
Anonymous, wrote
Stuart, wrote
Sadly this seems to be the answer to everything in South Africa - instead of sorting out the source of the problem, we try to attack the symptoms. Everytime there are social issues which are primarily caused by environmental ills, lack of adequate policing, disrepect of others and of the existing laws, poor economies and resultant labour issues, the first thing our government seeks to do is set up a task team and secondly create a new law!! These laws not only seek to hinder those that are actually obeying the existing laws anyway, but have further economic impacts, which create further social imbalances through lost jobs and companies closing, and put even further strain on a police department that already has any number of other laws to enforce that I can't adequately do now! Man, it's frustrating that those in power seek to solve problems by creating a nanny state. If the laws that were already there were properly enforced, and efforts were spent on the real causes of social problems like excessive drinking, there would be no need for this and we could actually enjoy living in a country with one of the most progressive and rights endowed constitutions in the world
Art, wrote
Don't you idiots know - from past experience if you make something "taboo" it only appears more intriguing and more exciting to partake in. Making alcohol more elusive will make it far more attractive than any advert.
Showing items 1 - 12 of 12
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Services
Buying a car has never been easy. Motoring.co.za contains a large database of car listings with a user friendly search.
Start searching today »
Financial Tools
You are here: IOL / Business / Business News / Booze ads ban may hit jobs
We like to make your life easier
Mobile
Browse IOL on your phone at m.iol.co.za.
Newsletters
Subscribe to our newsletters. News delivered to your inbox!
Comment Guidelines