People found drinking hand sanitisers to quench their thirst for alcohol may soon find themselves behind bars, Eastern Cape house of traditional leaders chairperson Mwelo Nonkonyana told DispatchLIVE on Tuesday.
This comes after media reports that desperate people were turning to the cleaning product used to decrease infectious agents on the hands.
Nonkonyana confirmed having received reports “of people drinking sanitisers,” but could not provide details.
He described the actions as disrespectful to the government's fight against the coronavirus.
“We are shocked and saddened that there are people who are drinking sanitisers, it is extremely dangerous and though the product contains alcohol, it is not meant for human consumption.
“We have now heard that some people have fallen sick from this and we are now looking at putting this as a regulation so that whoever is found drinking sanitisers as a way to replace alcohol will be arrested as they would be breaking the law.”
— DispatchLIVE
