CAPE TOWN
Manto targets alcohol next
Marvina Heugh
Posted Tue, 10 Dec 2002

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has turned her attentions to alcohol and the danger it poses in South Africa, The Mercury reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, Msimang, who spoke to a group of approximately 5000 people at Izongolweni, near Port Shepstone on Monday during the handing-over of the world report on violence and health compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO), said that recent figures showed that the victims in more than 50 percent of homicides in South Africa had raised alcohol levels.

She said that a vast majority of these deaths could have been prevented and that deaths due to violence were surely just the “tip of the violence iceberg”.

She said that she would be making an announcement about placing warnings on bottles and cans containing alcoholic drinks.

The newspaper said that, according to Derek Yach, group executive of the WHO, liquor companies appear to have redoubled their advertising efforts, especially to the youth, since the ban on advertising of tobacco products came into place.