Sports sponsorship ban still on the cards

The government might soon ban liquor manufacturers from sponsoring sporting events, but won't be banning all advertising of alcohol any time soon.

Briefing reporters at parliament yesterday, Zane Dangor, special adviser to Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini, said a technical task team was looking at "restrictions" on alcohol advertising, and would table its findings for ministers by October.

Restrictions would limit alcohol advertising in terms of locality, times and space and restrict advertising content, he said.

"It could mean there could be a complete ban on alcohol advertising on TV, but space for alcohol advertising in other areas."

A complete ban on alcohol companies sponsoring sports was "still on the cards", Dangor said.

"These sponsorships make this inaccurate link between sporting prowess and alcohol use and there, given the level of inappropriateness of sponsorship linked to sport and the fact that young people participate in sport, the word ban has been used."

He denied the government was backing off its promises to take tough measures against alcohol advertising.

"I don't think it is government going soft. The restrictions will be quite significant . in how alcohol is marketed, particularly using electronic and print media, which are accessible to younger audiences.

"Research shows that, when young people are exposed to alcohol marketing, there is a tendency for early drinking, harder drinking and problems later in life," Dangor said.

Dlamini said there was a moratorium on issuing new alcohol licences. Yesterday, she mooted a bonfire of confiscated liquor.

Last year, The Times reported that, according to a preliminary study by marketing analyst Chris Moerdyk, if alcohol advertising was banned a "conservative" estimate was that about 2500 jobs would be lost, depriving about 30000 people of incomes, and that there would be a VAT loss of about R280-million.

But Dangor said: "We need to move away from looking at alcohol as an economic issue and start looking at it as a public health issue."

"It is impacting negatively on the health of people, causing social crime," he said. "The costs associated with alcohol far outweigh the benefits."

Dangor said Soul City and the Medical Research Council had conducted a study comparing the tax revenue that came from alcohol and the costs that departments incurred from alcohol abuse.

"That study showed that, from a business perspective, government is making a loss, because it was spending more than it was taking in," he said.

Dangor said the government also planned to make substance-abuse treatment centres available to the poor by funding non-governmental organisations that ran addiction centres in poor communities.

"We are concerned about the lack of access that many people have to treatment. Very few of the treatment centres are state owned," he said.