Times Of Swaziland: ‘DD’ PROBLEM NEEDS HOLISTIC APPROACH

‘DD’ PROBLEM NEEDS HOLISTIC APPROACH
================================================================================
Editor on 19/09/2024 07:31:00


Sir,
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo suggested that, if
drink-driving fines could be set at E15 000, the habit would immediately stop.
However, without a holistic approach, the proposed solution by the minister has
the optics of profiteering out of a problem instead of providing a solution. The
whole debate about widespread alcohol consumption and illicit sales is not
holistic in the first place. The analysis of the problem by the speakers was on
the legalistic facet at the expense of a multitude other facets that make up the
whole problem. As such, the prescription for the problem was bound to be limited
to the same plane as the problem-purely an extreme punishment for the very much
hated drink-driving.
Extreme
It reeks of this strict parent whose only solution to every undesired behaviour
is extreme beating without bothering to understand the underlying causative
factors. Other than just drinking for leisure, there seems to be no
consideration of other factors that could lead to the growing number of illegal
drinking hotspots. In a country that is marred with high unemployment, a
declining economy, scanty salary adjustments, decreasing GDP per capita,
ever-increasing inequality and a shrinking middle class, increase in anxiety
over the financial security is expected. Those who still have means to meet the
daily cost of living worry about economic stagnation and the risk of going down
the rung of economic classifications with each passing day.
Power
This rightfully pushes them in the direction of building other streams of
income. However, the declining buying power per individual in the country wakes
this class to the reality that there is little profit, if any, to be made in
most business ventures. On the end of the economic spectrum are those that have
little to no income and therefore, can barely meet the daily cost of living.
This group is sadly populated by young to middle-aged people that threw their
entire weight behind school to earn qualifications, only to realise that, while
they were doing the noble activities of school, the job market was shrinking.
Not-affording
Combining these spectra of people, it is no surprise, then that alcohol sale
becomes the lowest hanging fruit for investment by the affording class while
alcohol consumption becomes the antidote for the growing anxiety among the
not-affording class. This provides a fertile environment for the growth of
illicit alcohol sales and alcohol consumption. If there is one thing that the
Senate discussion has rightly pointed out, it is that the alcohol consumption is
bigger than just drink-driving. Therefore, addressing drink-driving through
hefty financial punitive measures while ignoring the socio-economic factors that
lead to broader alcohol consumption and illicit trade will not work. Instead, it
will create another set of problems emanating from drink-driving offenders being
unable to pay the fines.
Stress
With the economic stress being felt by the wider population (law enforcement
personnel included), it needs no genius to figure out that this becomes a
cocktail for widespread corruption.
If anything is to be learned from history, it is that alcohol prohibition in the
USA led to the growth of the black market, which even after the lifting of the
bans left an infrastructure for drug smuggling-an infrastructure that would
subsequently be used for many years to come by drug cartels. The challenge for
the government is coming up with a holistic approach to deal with the problem at
all levels of its occurrence.