Cape Town – Western Cape residents have been called upon to consume alcohol responsibly as we head into the last weekend of the month.
Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz has called for citizens in the province to drink responsibly now that the alcohol ban has been lifted.
“It’s the end of the month and the outright ban on the purchase and transport of alcohol has been eased. I want to appeal to citizens: please consume alcohol responsibly. Please observe and comply with the provisions pertaining to alcohol in the Disaster Management Act.
“We have seen a spike in cases and we cannot afford our hospital beds to be occupied by patients presenting in trauma units with alcohol-related injuries.”
During the digicon on Thursday, provincial head of health, Dr Keith Cloete, said that that during lockdown level 2, there were no restrictions on alcohol sales, and the trauma cases that were presented continued with weekend and start/end of month peaks.
“Alert level 3 introduced some restrictions on alcohol sales and saw a decreasing trend of trauma presentations. Alert level 4 and a complete prohibition on alcohol sales saw significant declines in trauma presentations from an already reduced baseline,” Cloete said.
“The recent change to adjusted level 3 allows for partial availability of alcohol sales. This coincides with an end of month weekend which, in normal circumstances, tend to see increases in trauma presentations.
“Since the Western Cape is currently also entering the peak of the third wave of Covid-19, the implications of this may cause significant strain to an already threatened health platform.”
Fritz added that he and the provincial police commissioner remain in contact and he assures that extra policing will be deployed to monitor compliance and ensure that citizens observe the regulations.
“I have also engaged the Western Cape Liquor Authority and the Compliance and Enforcement Units are going to be conducting a number of operations this weekend.”
Fritz concluded: “I therefore appeal to communities to work with us. Please adhere to the curfew. If you don’t, you will be arrested and spend the night in jail. Please consume alcohol responsibly. Consume alcohol in the safety of your own home; don’t go to parties and other places where there are large numbers of people.
“And please don’t consume excessive amounts of alcohol. Enforcement agencies are deployed and are on the ground, but I would much rather prefer that they don’t have to arrest anybody,” Fritz said.
Anyone who witnesses any criminal acts, or who has any other information that will assist SAPS in making arrests are urged to telephone the SAPS Command Centre at 021 466 0011.