Cape Town - A proposed amendment to the Western Cape Provincial Education Act for schools to be able to sell alcohol at functions as a way to raise funds has been heavily criticised.
Public comments are being considered on the draft bill to amend the Western Cape Provincial School Education Act 12 of 1997. If passed, principals and school governing bodies will be able to allow the sale of alcohol at adult events.
Western Cape MEC for Education Debbie Schäfer says the amendment is to deal with what is already happening at many schools and there will be conditions attached to protect children. She says it is another way for schools to raise funds.
Equal Education, the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa) and the Muslim Judicial Council have hit out at Schäfer, saying the amendment was clearly not thought through as alcohol abuse is a major problem in the Western Cape.
The draft national liquor policy proposes that liquor should not be sold within a 500m radius of schools and places of worship.
The provincial Alcohol-Related Harms Reduction Policy Green Paper, being championed by Premier Helen Zille, highlights the dangers of alcohol for children and adults.
The policy Green Paper emphasises the effects of alcohol, which is responsible for:
* An estimated loss to the South Africa’s economy of 7 to 10 percent of GDP, or R165 to R236 billion.
* 70 percent of crimes linked to substance abuse.
* 67 percent of domestic violence.
* 70 percent of trauma victims testing positive for alcohol.
* 18 to 26 percent of Grade 1 pupils in high-risk communities show signs of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
* 35.2 percent of Western Cape pupils in grades 8 to 11 admitting to binge-drinking - more than any other province.
But Schäfer said: “We cannot escape the reality that some parents like to have wine at cocktail parties, for example.
“The current legislation even prohibits that. People are welcome to make suggestions as to how we can limit abuse, but still allow freedom of choice.”
Naptosa executive director Basil Manuel said allowing the sale of alcohol at schools would be a powder keg. “In the Western Cape we have a history that comes with apartheid, where people were encouraged to be dependent on alcohol.”
He said schools were the teaching ground for various types of citizenry and moral upbringing and should not be involved in the general abuse of substances.
Equal Education’s general secretary, Tshepo Motsepe, said Schäfer was adding salt to an open wound.
“It is nonsense to raise funds selling alcohol. The WCED may only be thinking of well-functioning communities, but the concern should be in communities where alcohol is a problem,” he said.
In their submission on the draft amendment bill, the EE says: “Both the DBE (Department of Basic Education) and the Western Cape government have taken heed of statistics that show the devastating effects of drug and alcohol abuse in South Africa, and especially in the Western Cape.
“Their policy documents and safety guides repeatedly emphasise the need to keep schools as alcohol- and drug-free zones.”
MJC secretary-general Shaykh Isgaak Taliep wrote in an open letter to Schäfer that it is ironic that she would find the legislation governing the sale of alcohol too restrictive, at a time when the national departments of Health and Trade and Industry were working to further regulate the sale of alcohol.
Taliep says the proposed amendment creates the perception the WCED views the sale of alcohol during school fund-raising events of more importance than the moral upbringing and nurturing of pupils.
Cape Times