First step to ban Sunday alcohol sales

The Gauteng government will on this week kick-start the process that will pave the way for the promulgation of the Gauteng Liquor Bill.

The bill is to be introduced to an official sitting of the Gauteng legislature on Friday.

It comes just over two years after Premier Nomvula Mokonyane expressed concern over alcohol abuse in the province.

There were calls to ban alcohol sales on Sundays.

Last year, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Elizabeth Thabethe declared war on alcohol abuse among the youth and pregnant women. Thabethe proposed raising the alcohol consumption age from 18 to 21, and reducing trading times.

In Gauteng, officials had - before Thabethe's plans - also expressed concerns over the trading of alcohol near schools and places of worship.

This week, however, will mark the first step that the provincial government will take to review existing liquor policies, a move that is set to attract resistance from the alcohol industry.

While the details of the bill are still not clear, Siphiwe Mgcina, chairman of the province's economic development portfolio committee, said the alcohol industry would be invited to give its views after the bill was published in the provincial gazette.

When the draft bill was first published last year, it received a lot of criticism from the alcohol industry.

The Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use reportedly said at the time that parts of the bill, including a prohibition to sell liquor to pregnant women, would be hard to enforce because it was not always easy for a seller to tell if a woman was pregnant.