Cape Town - The Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry’s recommendation to establish a task team to investigate policy options regarding unlicensed liquor outlets has been welcomed by child safety lobbyists.
The director of the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust, Kathleen Dey, said: “The glamorising of alcohol use through advertising and the pervasive social denial about the negative consequences of drinking are something we can manage better.
“We must consider the damaging consequences of violence to our women and children as well as the damage to persons abusing alcohol.”
She said Rape Crisis supported the recommendation that the Department of Safety look into the establishment of a task team.
She said staff at Rape Crisis saw poverty, unemployment, inequality, high rates of HIV and substance abuse in their “day-to-day work” in the community.
While these were not direct causes of rape, she added, together they formed “a complex tapestry of conditions that favour an increase in violence, and violence against women and children in particular”.
A Khayelitsha resident, who did not want to be named, lives next door to an unlicensed shebeen with her grandchildren.
She said: “Our kids play outside in the yard. They hear rude words, and see people fighting. We also worry about their safety when we are inside because someone might offer money or sweets or chips and then rape them.”
According to Professor Charles Parry, director of an alcohol research unit at the Medical Research Council, bringing unlicensed outlets into the regulated market would be “an important step in improving the safety and health of children and adults in such areas where unlicensed outlets are abundant”.
But, he added: “Such action, will not be enough. Proper engagement with licence holders and alcohol servers on how to sell alcohol in a responsible manner, including not serving to children or obviously intoxicated persons, proper enforcement of liquor outlet regulations and the involvement of the broader community, are also essential.”
The Department of Social Development also welcomed the recommendation and said that with just over 1 400 drinking outlets in Khayelitsha, “the problem of availability of alcohol to minors is particularly a big one”.
“The Western Cape provincial government has long held the view that substance abuse not only increases the burden of disease in the province, but also compromises education outcomes, destroys families and fuels violent crime.”
Community Safety MEC Dan Plato said he was concerned that the South African Police Union (Sapu) had already criticised the commission’s recommendation that officers in Khayelitsha should learn to communicate in the language residents of the area understood.
“While I note the Sapu acknowledgement that the recommendation regarding language use is a practical one, I ask that the organisation first allow the SAPS and relevant departments to develop a strategy to implement the findings before criticising them. The ultimate aim is to improve the relations between the public and the police and to ensure a better police service for all.”
Cape Times