The City of Johannesburg is planning to increase raids on liquor outlets over holiday weekends after emergency services were forced to respond to more assault incidents than road crashes.
Synock Matobako‚ spokesperson for Johannesburg Emergency Management Services‚ said the unit was busy over the weekend.
“In the morning yesterday we had responded to 115 motor vehicle accidents and 137 incidents of assaults‚” Matobako said.
Official figures of road fatalities over the Easter weekend are yet to be released by Transport Minister Blade Nzimande.
Matobako said there was a close link between alcohol consumption and assault cases reported in the city.
“People think that Easter weekend is time to relax and have fun. Those that are Christian will go to church. Those who don’t go to church use this time to be in a jovial mood and use the time to relax. That is why you will have more of fighting because of the alcohol consumption. We conducted a raid together with the Johannesburg Metro Police and SAPS on liquor outlets‚ looking at those which were complying and those which are not. Most of the liquor outlets were closed during the raid‚” Matobako said.
He added that another raid was scheduled for Yeoville on Monday but had to be cancelled after the passing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
“The raids will become a common feature during holidays. I spoke to the chief of police in Johannesburg (David Tembe) and he is of the opinion that the raids must be increased and more enforcement must be done‚” Matobako.
