MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Call For Reduced Liquor Hours in Port Elizabeth

By

www.MyPE.co.za: Like many other South Africans, I am appalled that thousands of people die on our roads each year, many having been killed by drunken drivers. The situation is unacceptable, as is the hypocrisy that goes with it.

Switch on the TV and you are confronted by advert after advert extolling the virtues and pleasures of liquor. On the other hand, adverts highlight the ghastly effects of liquor on families, and we are told not to drink and drive. We need to decide which is more important – saving human lives or profits.

I believe the time has arrived for something to be done to change the situation,, and I have formed a small committee to start the ball rolling. We believe the local authority needs to dramatically reduce the opening and closing times of liquor sales, so that, in residential areas, and liquor outlets bordering residential areas, the closing time must be 23h00. If this is done, those who want to will be able to purchase liquor from 10h00 to 23h00. Applications for licence-holders to sell liquor until 04h00 should be automatically rejected. If anyone wants to drink that late, let them drink at home, where their victims will be family members, not innocent people they can kill on our roads.

The 23h00 closing time works well at Stanley On Bain, where popular, established restaurants are showing the way, which should be enforced throughout the Metro, including the townships. We have for years asked that, before it approves applications for liquour licences, the East Cape Liquor Board must be assured that the applicant has satisfied local authority requirements such as the correct zoning and health and safety guarantees.

Our appeals for this to happen has fallen on deaf ears and neither the Board, nor the local authority, has responded, to their eternal shame. If public opinion is anything to go by, proposals to shorten drinking hours in the Metro – which will fall into line with plans being introduced by the Western Cape and Gauteng – will receive massive support.

As chairman of the committee, I will be supported by Councillor Elizabeth Trent, Councillor Isaac Adams, who will represent the northern areas, Nigel Fox, who is a prominent member of South Africans Against Drunk Driving, and who lost a son to a drunken driver, and John Preller, who is chairman of the Humewood Community Police Forum. The committee will meet next week to draw up a plan of action.

Regards

Terry Herbst

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.