BUSINESS MAVERICK ANALYSIS: Prohibition: Social conservatism that’s shattering working-class lives

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The consequences of prohibition include mounting commercial casualties that have helped land South Africa’s economy in the trauma unit. The motives of some of its backers are well meaning, and the reasoning behind the ban not without its merits. But as the economic toll mounts, it is worth bearing in mind that it reflects a socially conservative agenda with racist and classist roots, and that the working class is ultimately paying the price.

, the brutal Christian theocracy of Gilead imposes alcohol prohibition as part of its rigid and biblically inspired moral code. But the rulers and elite, of course, imbibe behind closed doors.

These are among the roots of prohibition in South Africa, making the 19th century Chamber of Mines and its colonial political allies the historical handmaidens of South Africa’s current batch of prohibitionists. And undoubtedly, South Africa is in many ways a “socially conservative” country – to the extent that it could possibly be argued that its admirably progressive Constitution does not always reflect wider popular values.

Only someone who has spent decades in a blue-light brigade bubble, with an immensely inflated sense of their own self-importance and influence on public behaviour, could possibly believe that prohibition would be an effective policy. But then, governments that don’t trust their own people are also usually out of touch.

Only someone who has spent decades in a blue-light brigade bubble, with an immensely inflated sense of their own self-importance and influence on public behaviour, could possibly believe that prohibition would be an effective policy. But then, governments that don’t trust their own people are also usually out of touch.

Former President Jacob Zuma is also a teetotaller and the rape trial in which he was acquitted provoked public displays of terrifying misogyny from many of his supporters. Alcohol is not always required to stir up masculinity in its most toxic forms. “What makes the minister’s justification even more perplexing is that, in the current version of the Regulations, she has permitted minibus taxis to carry passengers at 100% of licensed capacity for short-haul journeys. The risk of the public health system being overwhelmed is much greater if commuters sit cheek by jowl in taxis than if smokers are permitted to continue smoking,” BATSA also said in its filing, effectively eviscerating Dlamini Zuma’s stance.

Most of the people who derive an income along the alcohol and tobacco value chains are also working-class, and many will have several dependents. Their livelihoods are now being shattered at a time when the unemployment rate has been surging from 30% in the first quarter of 2020.

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