Eastern Cape Finance MEC Oscar Mabuyane said some of the province's university students spent more than R1m on alcohol over just one weekend.
Mabuyane was speaking to the media at the launch of the Institutions of Higher Learning Anti-Alcohol Abuse education campaign in East London on Tuesday.
The campaign is being run in partnership with the Eastern Cape Liquor Board.
Mabuyane said the boozy spending spree came after students received their NSFAS payments last week.
"You get young people getting this money through their bank accounts, the bulk of the money goes to the liquor outlets. An interesting story that I heard is that they (students) got money on Thursday, Friday, on Sunday (sic) one of the liquor outlets around here got more than a million. This level of indulging is a problematic one," he said.
Mabuyane said it was a societal problem and government alone cannot deal with this matter.
"It needs proper parenting, proper guidance, proper upbringing, all of us working together," Mabuyane said.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Eastern Cape Liquor Board, Lindelwa Majova, says they have appointed a service provider to work with all the Universities in the province to try and eradicate alcohol abuse at institutions of higher learning.
"We were creating awareness to the traders and consumers and it came to our realisation that actually the problem is also increasing at the universities. That is why we actually need to go to schools and universities," she said.
