Legal action threatened over alcohol abuse 15 June 2007

Bawsi confronts the wine industry
 

The South African wine industry’s terrible legacy of alcohol abuse in the Western Cape, partly the result of the infamous and now illegal ‘dop system’,  is coming under the spotlight  again. The Black Association of the Wine and Spirits Industry (Bawsi) is threatening to bring legal action against the government and the industry over the issue. According to press reports, Bawsi has demanded that a fund be established to deal with endemic alcoholism and to set up an institution for the treatment of alcoholics.

According to Sapa, ‘Bawsi president Nosey Pieterse said failure to set up the fund would leave the body with no option but to lodge the class action.’

There is no doubt that alcohol abuse, particularly in the context of the great poverty that abounds in the winelands, is a huge problem. For example, South Africa has the world’s highest numbers of children born with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). It is a problem which has clearly not received adequate attention from either the wine industry or the local, provincial or national authorities. The small amount of relevant action (small in relation to the problem) is largely conducted by non-governmental organisations like Dopstop and charities like the Pebbles Project. Until the advent of Pebbles a few years back, for example, there was no specialist education to help FAS children (and others with lesser degrees of effects. Now there is, on the strictly limited scale that a small charity can afford.

Some financial support for these organisations has come from the wine industry and government, but the scale of the problem dwarfs present efforts; the lead and, apparently, the greatest commitment, remains with bodies outside the industry and the state.

Interestingly, in the speech given recently by Minister Trevor Manuel at the SA Wine Trust and Sawic Freedom Day Lecture, there was no mention of the problem of alcoholism – although the Minister did speak, not too clearly, of 'the particular kinds of social fragmentation or dysfunctionality that characterise Western Cape farms or townships'. But in fact, according to the Minister, alcohol abuse and the misery it engenders are apparently not one of the 'great challenges before us' (which are market development and broad-based empowerment).

In this context it is only surprising that protest has been so muted thus far. It must be hoped that the present call from Bawsi (which has recently also taken a loud position on other social matters, such as evictions of farmworkers) is part of a genuine commitment to tackling these issues, and that, one way or another, it bears fruit.

A responsive statement by the South African Wine Council (Sawic) has expressed ‘surprise’ at the Bawsi intended action on matters concerning alcohol abuse and on what it calls ‘some alleged problems’. The statement points out that the leader of Bawsi is, in fact, himself a member of the Sawic Board, and speaks of the Council’s ‘commitment to addressing the myriad industry related issues, which have always included alcohol abuse [and] fetal [sic] alcohol syndrome’. Apparently, ‘these issues have received top priority at Government level due to the SA Wine Council’s lobbying efforts’.

Sawic says that it will be seeking a meeting with Bawsi to get an explanation of its latest move. It also says that 'current institutions, the industry and the Government ... cannot be legally held responsible for what happened in the past'. One wonders if Bawsi would settle for a recognition by the industry that it continues to bear moral, even if not legal, responsibility for the continuing damage done by previous actions – and, arguably, present inactions.