Tsitsi Matope
The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with various partners, have completed compiling the draft alcohol policy, which seeks to help reduce the abuse use of alcohol and promote healthy lifestyles in Lesotho.
The ministries of Education and Training, Public Works and Transport, Tourism, Environment and Culture and Trade, Industry, Cooperatives and Marketing were some of the stakeholders involved in compiling the draft.
The proposed policy, which is expected to be presented before cabinet and parliament for approval later this year, would provide guidelines to be used in the formulation of a law to regulate the consumption and sale of alcohol, which is expected to be operational by the end of next year.
According to the Ministry of Health Director of Disease Control, Moselinyane Letsie, the high-consumption of alcohol in Lesotho has become cause for concern.
“We are concerned that even some children as young as 13, are consuming alcohol. This irresponsible lifestyle defeats our fight against some non-communicable and communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and HIV, among others,” Dr Letsie said. She further said various stakeholders should seriously look into the factors pushing many people, who include pregnant women and children, to abuse alcohol.
“We need proper research to understand the push factors and map up strategies that can help stop the harmful use of alcohol. However, there are indications that these days, many people just drink irresponsibly for the fun of it while others are pushed to alcoholism by frustration, depression and other socio-economic factors.”
Dr Letsie said the guidelines for the draft policy have made efforts to look into various alcohol-related issues in line with the World Health Organisation’s recommendations under the Framework for Implementing the Regional Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol (2014-2020).
Once the draft becomes a policy and an alcohol law is passed, alcohol advertising could be banned while strict regulations to deter pregnant women from drinking alcohol would be in full force. “In the draft, we have also considered how the location of taverns in some settlements negatively affects the residents in terms of promoting crime and other societal ills. At the same time, the draft also looked into issues of opening hours of beer-outlets, which is currently a major concern because some operators open their premises 24 hours a day. This does not promote healthy lifestyles,” Dr Letsie said.
Other countries such as Botswana have already passed strict alcohol legislation, which has seen the sale of alcohol being banned on Sundays, among other restrictions. Dr Letsie said the draft does not spare brewers of traditional beer and also targets some brands she said promote diseases such as cancer.
“Just like in the case of taverns, we would also like traditional brew operations to be regulated. It cannot be business as usual from morning to the next morning. We are also concerned about the manner in which some operators are brewing their traditional brands. We know there are some people boiling batteries to quickly ferment their beer and this is very harmful.”
