Premier
With regard to the Alcohol Harms Reduction Strategy:
(a) When did the Provincial Cabinet adopt this strategy, (b) what are the details of the steps taken to implement it in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018, (iii) 2019, (iv) 2020 and (v) 2021, (c) what are the (i) dates, (ii) times, (iii) venues and (iv) names of those who were in attendance at meetings with the liquor industry with former Premier Zille and Premier Winde and the various Ministers in the period May 2014 to July 2021?
(a) The Western Cape Alcohol Related Harms Reduction Policy White Paper – which is underpinned by an Alcohol Harms Reduction Strategy - was adopted by the Western Cape Cabinet on 30 August 2017 and published in the Government Gazette dated 4 September 2017, with implementation commencing thereafter.
(b) (i) 2017
Planning began on the development of a Draft Liquor Bill and the necessary supporting evidence required for implementation in a rational, reasonable, and proportional way as required by the Constitution.
(ii) 2018
Work was undertaken to obtain the appropriate approvals for the drafting of a Western Cape Liquor Bill, inclusive of a range of discussions and workshops with various working groups on the direction for a Draft Western Cape Liquor Bill.
(iii) 2019
Various Research initiatives were undertaken during this period and included legal research initiatives and opinions around minimum unit pricing mechanisms and the development a monitoring and evaluation toolkit:
An independent external service provider, the South African Medical Research Council, with a team specialising in alcohol-related harms reduction and monitoring and evaluation indicator development, was tasked by the WCG to develop an M&E toolkit. The project reviewed and developed an M&E indicator list for the WCG focusing on alcohol-related harms and related indicators. It also provided a critical assessment of the WCG internal evidence / data sources and relevant local and national data sources, and mechanisms for WCG data provision and collection.
Research on WHO Pricing mechanisms - Excise Tax & Minimum Unit Pricing:
Reducing alcohol-related harms through pricing mechanisms is one of the three WHO “best buys”, which are mechanisms deemed highly cost-effective in reducing alcohol attributable deaths and disabilities at population level. A report was delivered on 01 October 2018, which indicated that a Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) had the potential to significantly impact the consumption of heavy drinkers and that it is an instrument that targets cheap alcohol to reduce riskier harm-causing heavy drinking.
(iv) 2020
This period provided for the continuation of research and exploring policy and legislative frameworks primarily around availability mechanisms such as density and trading times. It included research into alcohol outlet density and trading time interventions through utilising locally derived empirical data to guide the assessment and the development of a provincial policy position.
(v) 2021
Initiatives in the current financial year include a continuation of further research, particularly into pricing mechanisms and different trading time levels, but with a South African and Western Cape specific Impact Assessment across various social and economic variables in the province such as consumption and reducing alcohol related health and social harms (e.g. HIV, IPV, road injury, and others) and costs (individual spend, excise tax and VAT, retail revenue, hospital, and crime costs).
These research efforts culminated in a set of proposed amendments to the Western Cape Liquor Act. In principle approval was granted by Cabinet on the 9th of June 2021 for the amendment bill to be drafted.
(c) In respect of the development of the Alcohol Harms Reduction Strategy, there were no meetings held with the liquor industry, and the attendance registers reflect same.
