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Eastern Cape Premier, Lubabalo Mabuyane, believes that the ban on alcohol sales in the province should be extended for the next six months.
This, to counter a rising crime rate that has seen no less than 181 cases of rape and 186 murders being reported since the country moved to Level 3 lockdown on 1 June.
He was speaking during a virtual sitting of the Eastern Cape Legislature’s Special Programmes Committee on Wednesday.
“This is the catastrophe of liquor sales during this period,” he lamented.
Mabuyane said although there has been a decrease in the rush to buy liquor, “the incidents of crime related to liquor indicate that we have opened a can of worms by allowing liquor sales.”
“I still maintain we should absorb the economic hardship of a ban on liquor sales for the next 6 months to save the lives of our people,” he said.
Mabuyane said that support in the form of government relief funding could be extended to legal liquor outlets to cushion them during the ban of liquor sales to pay the salaries of workers.
The Premier provided the following figures to back his position:
