Billions of Rands are invested in social development in South Africa. Tens of thousands of people in government and civil society pour their lives into trying to improve society.
But it seems like a Sisyphean task – pushing boulders up a hill only to see them roll back down again and again. One of the biggest retardants of progress is the widespread abuse of alcohol. The problem is so big that the taxes paid by the liquor industry are far lower than the impact on families and the cost of health and social services.
It’s a reality we are reluctant to confront, either because we think there’s little that can be done about it, or because we don’t know how to reconcile the fact that at least half of us are social drinkers and occasionally cross the line ourselves. It is time we all fully understood the impact of alcohol abuse and take radical steps to reduce it.
Download the Alcohol Harms Reduction learning brief here or page through it in ISSUU below – choose full-screen mode [ ] for a better reading experience. You can download the full Hands-on Learning publication (Issue 15) here.
