Police Minister Bheki Cele is learning that the ban on alcohol sales during lockdown comes with unwanted side effects which put a strain on law enforcement’s resources.

With President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing a two-week extension of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, which was originally intended to last until 16 April, many South Africans had hoped for some regulatory reprieves. At the top of the list, is the demand for government to lift the ban on alcohol and tobacco sales.

The Gauteng Liquor Forum, which is just one organisation lobbying the government to relax the total ban on booze sales, has threatened to approach the Constitutional Court should President Ramaphosa fail to heed their calls.

Gauteng Liquor Forum versus Bheki Cele

The Forum, which represents 20 000 small businesses in the province, has given government until Thursday to respond to its concerns, stating:

“The total ban on the selling of alcohol is unreasonable and it has no rational connection to the mischief which is sought to be prevented. Unless we receive the written undertaking from the honourable president by no later than 12pm on Tuesday 14 April 2020, our clients will have no option but to approach court on an urgent basis for appropriate relief.”

Bheki Cele ‘won’t back down on booze ban’

Minister Cele has, however, remained resolute in his fight against alcohol; a fight which many South Africans have labelled a ‘personal vendetta’. Since the beginning of the lockdown on 27 March, thousands of South Africans have been arrested for violating the alcohol ban. In fact, images of the first arrests, which were published just hours after the lockdown become effective, showed Johannesburg revellers loaded into cop vans, drinks still in hand.

Since then, reconnaissance and raids, conducted by both the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) have intensified.

In the rolling hills of the rural Eastern Cape, police have seized and destroyed homemade beer.

In the bustling streets of Kagiso, trucks belonging to the South African Breweries (SAB) have been impounded, with beer cargo estimated to be worth R13 million destined for destruction.

In the Western Cape, acting on information, the police have shut down several shabeens in Khayelitsha and Mfuleni.

In Alexandra, a resident, identified as Collins Khoza, was allegedly beaten to death by the SANDF after a soldier discovered beer in the man’s fridge.

Reduction in violent crime, Cele’s clarion call

The police and SANDF are, admittedly, dedicating a lot of resources to the war on alcohol. Minister Cele has argued that the decrease in violent crimes can be directly attributed to the ban on alcohol sales. Earlier this month, the police minister pointed out:

“Murder cases dropped from 326 to 94; rape cases dropped from 699 to 101; cases of assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm dropped from 2,673 to 456; and trio crimes dropped from 8,853 to 2,098.”

While the data above has become the irrefutable, burning-torch of Cele’s crusade against liquor sales, a new cloud of growing discontentment threatens to extinguish the minister’s flame.

Alcohol ban costing government money

Tax Justice South Africa (TJSA) recently revealed that the ban on alcohol and cigarettes left the door wide open for the illicit trade to flourish, costing the South African government more than R100 million per day in unmet excise duties and sin tax.

While the argument could be made that the banning of alcohol and cigarette sales has, according to Cele’s data, saved the country much more in terms of human life, experts warn that extended prohibition does little to stop consumption but rather pushes both suppliers and users deeper into the dangerous black-market.

Already, cops are identifying, and busting, illegal alcohol manufacturers. In Mandawe, KwaZulu-Natal, police raided a suspected ‘moonshining’ premises, uncovering an operation-line of counterfeit booze. Bottles of alcoholic spirits — whisky, brandy, vodka and gin — were confiscated during the Easter weekend bust.

Police Minister Bheki Cele conducts a site visit in the Western Cape during lockdown / Image via Twitter: SA Police Service 🇿🇦 @SAPoliceService

Liquor store looting and police collusion

Cele spent his Easter weekend in the Western Cape, conducting site visits to numerous police operations in the Northern Suburbs. Cele condemned violent acts of looting, which have targeted liquor stores in and around Cape Town in the last week.

Western Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Yolisa Matakata, confirmed that 16 bottle stores had been attacked and looted since the start of the lockdown. Video footage of the brazen, daylight attacks on outlets — where shop windows are busted out and crowds rush into aisles, emerging with an assortment of liquor — has left Cele fuming.

Police resources are now being redirected, whether officially or naturally, to the ‘protection’ of bottle stores, as ‘high crime’ locations, and the tracking of suspected looters, which involve hundreds, potentially thousands, of community members. Cele has pointed to ‘inside jobs’ as a reason for the bottle store break-ins, saying:

“We are finding some organisation with the owners of these bottle stores, who come together with the criminals to push their stock.”

In commenting on the ‘inside-job’ looting in the Western Cape, Cele dropped a bombshell which has since uncovered serious police collusion with criminals, saying:

“This is what has happened… we have arrested our own police who were working with the manager [in organising the looting].”

The issue touched upon by Cele cannot, however, be viewed in isolation; especially not after numerous law enforcement officials, from various provinces, have been arrested for facilitating the movement and sale of alcohol over the past few days.

In Mpumalanga, two SAPS officers were arrested by their colleagues after they were found to have escorted a convoy of trucks transporting illicit liquor.

The worry is that, as the lockdown rolls on, incidents of collusion between SAPS members and illicit traders will explode into an all-out black-market trade; a trade which will ultimately cost police a large chunk of its resources.

Acting police Brigadier Mathapelo Peters has confirmed that Cele’s concerns surrounding the looting of bottle stores and collusion with law enforcement called for serious intervention, noting:

“Cele has called for an urgent meeting where, together with SAPS management, they will engage liquor retailers to address this problem and work out a collaborative strategy towards mitigating this emerging risk.”

This meeting is expected to include the National Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, who leads the SAPS Anti-Corruption Strategy.

The problem with prohibition

Cele is, admittedly, learning the hard lessons which were taught during the 1920s and early 30s in the United States of America. They, too, instituted a prohibition which, although vastly different in terms of timespan and origin, fundamentally prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcohol.

The prohibition has, in hindsight, been regarded as a failure. While, at first, the rate of consumption drastically decreased, Americans found inventive — and illegal — ways to skirt prohibition. Although prohibition reduced alcohol-associated illnesses and deaths, it gave rise to organised crime which profited from government’s ban on alcohol. In time, this power afforded to gangsters would result in widespread bloodshed.

Similarly, in South Africa, when citizens expected the national lockdown to end on 16 April, most had no problem going a couple weeks without booze. Following the announcement of an extension — possibly the first of more to come — the country has seen an ‘overnight spike’ in illicit activity concerning the sale, production and transportation of liquor.