Liquor licences are being granted indiscriminately, ignoring the vast amount of literature that points to a direct relationship between alcohol and crime and violence. Hopefully the Draft Liquor Policy will look into this, writes Neil Fraser.

Neil Fraser

THE three essential commodities that accompanied the early growth of Joeys were gold, liquor and sex.

From a base of probably 200 people in the area at the time of the discovery of gold, the population skyrocketed to 26 000 within four years, to 74 000 in 10 years and 620 000 in 40 years.

At the end of four years there were 312 bars and many sex workers providing for the mainly male population. And as the gold was progressively reduced, the other two increased, exponentially. (I see that our national commissioner of police is now recommending that sex work is legalised before 2010 and there is also a suggestion floating around that a red light district be introduced in the inner city.)

The bigger problem for the moment, however, relates to the issuing of liquor licences. I understand that there are more liquor licences in Gauteng than in all the other provinces combined. Certainly the inner city has seen a rash of indiscriminate liquor licences being granted with absolutely no public consultation.

International research has clearly demonstrated the linkages between the availability of liquor and levels of crime and violence. This past Easter weekend there were many "Don't drink and drive" advertisements in acknowledgement of the fact that the majority of road accidents and fatalities can be linked to drivers under the influence of alcohol - recently these purportedly included a chief of police and a judge.

Evidently the provincial government published a Draft Liquor Policy towards the end of last year - I say evidently because I certainly missed the notice and the process that was adopted, described by one inner city colleague as opaque, apparently did not include the solicitation of comments from the broader public, such as business organisations and residents associations.

Yet it is businesses and communities that have to bear the brunt of the problems that flow from many of these establishments. There have been numerous complaints recently of increased public drunkenness in Braamfontein following the opening of what were perceived to be shebeens but what have now been found to have been granted licences.

Chatting to a senior council official this week, I gathered that licences were being granted to shebeens operating from individual flats in residential developments. There are very real negative social consequences that arise from the abuse of liquor and to legitimise the sale of liquor in a residential block of flats is, I think, criminal.

Generally council consent is also not sought when any form of entertainment is to be provided at these establishments, leading to later complaints about noise and so on. Currently the advertising of the application to allow for objections is extremely unsatisfactory and doesn't seek the comment of affected residents or businesses in the area.

Key council departments are also not informed of the granting of licences but the South African Police Service, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and various City departments are expected to deal with the problems that emanate from places where liquor is sold. They also have to ensure that permitted hours of operation are adhered to and check that liquor is not sold to minors.

The policy points out that the current shebeen problem "is a legacy of our apartheid past and cannot be allowed to linger on indefinitely. Unless an end is brought about to the untenable situation it will be impossible to implement a meaningful liquor policy … The present state of lawlessness and chaos in the industry cannot be allowed to continue."

It therefore proposes that shebeeners be given an opportunity to apply for a temporary trade permit that will later have to be converted to a shebeen licence. This means that shebeens currently operating illegally in areas that are not zoned for such activity are going to be legalised in the short term, without the applicants obtaining prior planning clearance from the local authority on matters of zoning or land use rights.

This sets up a certain expectation in the applicant's mind and leads to money being spent on extending buildings and upgrading facilities in order to qualify for a shebeen licence. They then learn that the council will not support the application because it is not in accordance with planning or zoning requirements or because it feels that the facility will affect the adjacent landowners. So you create another illegal operation.

The new policy will, hopefully, address many of the current problems experienced in the liquor industry, but it appears as if it will introduce new ones as well. In my mind it again raises the overall issue of the interface between provincial and local government.

Here we have a provincial authority directly affecting the urban environment that is the responsibility of the City council, with little or no communication. We do persist in making it difficult to follow our urban regeneration needs from a united front.

President Thabo Mbeki spent the weekend in the metro and partly in the inner city. The last time he was here on inner city business, that I know of, was in July 1997 when he announced the inner city vision - The Golden Heartbeat of Africa.

The vision was the outcome of months of hard work undertaken by a large number of people passionate about the inner city - members of the community, the business sector and some politicians and officials. The heartbeat was rather weak at that time; in fact the media constantly wanted us to believe that the patient had actually passed away – "Such and such flees the inner city - another nail in the inner city coffin".

This weekend he was undoubtedly shown the results of the hard work that has gone into turning the inner city around since 1997. The base off which the regeneration has been developed has been the establishment of city improvement districts, a private sector initiative to ensure enhanced public environments by providing safety and security, maintenance and cleaning.

Private sector money totalling many millions of rands a year goes into maintaining these areas at a level far greater than the City can provide.

There are the private sector residential developers, the new breed of entrepreneurial developers and investors, the stalwarts who have stuck by the inner city through thick and thin, those running support institutions, those in the cultural sector, the community workers, the built environment professionals and academics who have fought passionately against the wholesale destruction of the city's built heritage, and so on and so forth.

There are a whole host of business people who have contributed to the process and it would be good for them to be able to say to the president, "When you launched the The Golden Heartbeat of Africa vision the patient was in great distress. Through a joint effort with the public sector the pulse is beating strongly again although, from time to time, it does fade a bit. Another few years and we'll be able to remove the drip and declare the patient fully recovered."

Best, Neil

Walking and bus tours by the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust
The costs below are for members and non-members respectively. Bookings can be made at Computicket on 011 340 8000 or through the Computicket website.

For more information, phone 011 482 3349 in the mornings only.

Sunday, 22 April: Hills of Worship is a walking tour of significant graves in Westpark Cemetery, en route to the prayer circles in the hills. The cost is R50 and R70 and the tour takes about three hours.