Alcohol confiscations near the 5 000 litre mark

04 January 2022

The amount of alcohol confiscated from beaches and other public amenities is just shy of totals during the last pre-lockdown festive season. Read more below:

The City’s enforcement agencies have confiscated 8 699 bottles of alcohol this festive season, amounting to 4 786,66 litres.
 
The bulk of the confiscations happened on Boxing Day (2 315 bottles).
 
On New Year’s Day, confiscations totalled 1 206 bottles.
 
‘I think the weather on New Year’s Day was the biggest contributing factor, as our beaches were not nearly as busy as they might have been otherwise. Or perhaps the penny is finally dropping, and some people are starting to realise that the alcohol is best left at home. One can only hope.
 
‘Removing the alcohol through impounding it is no mean feat. Many people become riotous or refuse to cooperate. But I want to remind the public that every litre of alcohol confiscated is potentially one fewer person driving drunk, or swimming drunk, or getting involved in a fight or an accident or hurting someone else,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
 
Below is a comparison of alcohol confiscations over the past three years (16 December – 3 January), taking into account the closure of public amenities during the 2020/21 festive season.

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office