ANC’s plans for dry sport meets

THE ANC wants the liquor industry in South Africa to continue sponsoring sport, even if the brands are no longer allowed to market their products alongside the sporting events.

This is one of the proposals contained in the ANC’s policy documents in the section on social transformation, which contains the controversial bill on the control of marketing of alcoholic beverages.

If enacted, the bill will ban all ads for alcohol.

The ANC points out that if the bill goes ahead unchanged, it will have a devastating effect on sport and recreation.

It states the liquor industry, which has in the past sponsored sport programmes with large amounts, will without doubt withdraw these sponsorships when the marketing benefits that accompany them dry up.

The ANC therefore deems a contingency plan is urgently required and proposes that “state departments whose income will be affected by the act, must be recompensed from the fund maintained by the Association for Responsible Alcohol Use”.

The ANC proposes a levy of two percent, but the document is not clear which part of liquor industry will have to pay the levy.

The policy document also moots a five percent levy on all ticket sales that will be spent on developing rural tournaments. SARS should be responsible to create and manage this revenue stream