BP needs to put the brakes on selling booze at petrol stations

The Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance South Africa (SAAPA SA) will be handing over a memorandum to BP South Africa to call for an immediate halt to their plans to apply for liquor licences to sell alcohol at shops on the forecourts of petrol stations.

Alcohol harm already costs South Africa R38bn annually and is the most widespread drug of abuse in SA and the most harmful drug for users and non-users alike.

It is also the third-largest contributor to death and disability after unsafe sex/sexually transmitted infections and interpersonal violence, both of which are themselves influenced by alcohol consumption.

BP is now fuelling the alcohol harm problem by encouraging their forecourt shops to apply for liquor licences. We believe further that the Gauteng Provincial Government has erred by approving the first such licence as we are of the view that this is not in the interests of the public health of South Africans.

“We have called on all Provincial Liquor Authorities to implement an immediate moratorium on the awarding of all such licenses,” said SAAPA SA director Maurice Smithers.

The decision to allow petrol stations to have liquor licences is problematic as South Africa’s newly-adopted Liquor Policy of 2016 recommends strongly that premises attached to petrol stations should not be awarded liquor licences. The long-awaited Liquor Amendment Bill of 2016, which is based on the 2016 Policy, specifically outlaws the granting of licences to such premises. So the failure by the national Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) to fast-track what were deemed by Cabinet to be important and urgent amendments to the law has created the space for provinces to decide for themselves whether to award such licences.

There is a real risk that allowing petrol stations to sell alcohol is also going to lead to an increase in drink driving. It will serve to undermine the efforts of the Department of Transport to reduce alcohol-related traffic incidents through the Road Traffic Amendment Bill, which is currently being considered by Parliament.

SAAPA SA, its 23 Alliance Partners from a range of sectors in civil society and its research partners, call on government to address this issue urgently. The DTIC must step in and engage with provincial departments responsible for liquor licensing. At the same time, the DTIC must act urgently to get the Liquor Amendment Bill passed without delay.

South Africans against Drunk Driving (SADD), a SAAPA SA Alliance Partner, have launched a petition calling on the public to support the call for a ban on petrol station liquor licences. The link to the petition is https://tinyurl.com/tfvxhwax.

The media are invited to cover the handing over of a memorandum to BP South Africa at its head office in Johannesburg as follows:

Date: 1 September 2021

Time: 12.30 pm

Venue: Oxford Parks, 199 Oxford Rd (cnr Jellicoe Ave), Rosebank

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