We know that as a country we’re pretty good at kicking back and having a few toots, although the latest stats from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that we’re not all that good at knowing where our limits are.

The WHO study compared alcohol consumption in different countries across the continent and handed us the title as ‘drunkest country on the African continent’, with each of us consuming on average 11 litres of alcohol per person per year.

This stat is particularly worrying when you consider that 70% of trauma victims within our borders test positive for alcohol, something that has not gone unnoticed by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille. TimesLive reports:

[She] lamented the scourge of alcohol abuse after the death of eight women in a stampede at an overcrowded tavern in Khayelitsha.

Child Safe SA chairman Sebastian van As said: “Alcohol is closely related to violent crimes in the South African context.”

His research has found that “about 70% of people assaulting intimate partners or spouses are intoxicated”. Children are often the victims.

The Khayelitsha tavern tragedy has seen shebeens come under the spotlight, with Advocate Sandile Nkosi, the director of legal support and enforcement at the National Liquor Authority, citing a loss of revenue to illegal liquor traders as another problem. Economist Mike Schussler isn’t so sure shutting the outlets down is the correct move:

Schussler said shebeens should be effectively regulated rather than eradicated.

“Each one of those shebeens has somebody employed to clean it and the owner, his wife and family survive off it. You are talking 7000 to 10000 people that are going to be affected.”

Perhaps we could all do with exercising caution when knocking back the golden nectar this weekend, we often joke about having one too many but statistics like those above make for sober reading.

[source:timeslive]