With the country marking Social Development Month, Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe is urging all South Africans not to consume or sell alcohol to children during the month of October.
The call came as Tolashe and KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Social Development, Cynthia Mbali Shinga, commemorated World No Alcohol Day on Wednesday, October 2.
This commemoration took place in Sweetwaters, uMgungundlovu District, Umsunduzi Local Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal. The two leaders utilised the day to emphasise the negative consequences of alcohol consumption for individuals, families, and communities.
The department stated that alcohol is the most commonly abused legal drug in South Africa.
South Africa also has one of the world’s highest rates of alcohol consumption, with per capita consumption increasing over the last decade.
The government also stated that alcohol usage is a factor in around half of all non-natural deaths. It is involved in 75% of homicide cases, 60% of car accidents, and 24% of vehicle fatalities and injuries.
Tolashe stated that alcohol is the third-leading cause of mortality and disability, following unsafe sex/sexually transmitted illnesses and interpersonal violence, all of which are influenced by alcohol intake because alcohol impacts sexual and aggressive behaviour.
“Alcohol use has been recognised as a major contributor to the global burden of disease, with an even greater detrimental effect in low- and middle-income countries and people living in poverty,” said Tolashe.
She added that young individuals between 15 to 29 bear the highest disease burden due to alcohol usage.
Although men use and misuse alcohol more frequently and have a higher illness burden than women, a sizeable proportion of young women in South Africa also drink alcohol.
Women in poor neighbourhoods who use alcohol at comparable rates to men are much less likely to seek treatment. Young women who consume alcohol are more likely to engage in unsafe sexual behaviours, have poor adherence to HIV treatments, suffer from depression, and experience intimate partner violence.
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