Premier calls for alcohol to be banned in the Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape government wants the national command council to consider banning the sale of alcohol in the province.

This is according to premier Oscar Mabuyane who chairs the provincial command council.

His sentiments comes just hours after health MEC Sindiswa Gomba told journalists on Monday that there was a surge in the number of trauma cases in hospitals over the weekend.

At Frere Hospital alone in East London, there were 67 trauma cases linked to alcohol, she said.

“I want to make a plea to the people of the Eastern Cape to drink responsibly because when they over indulge, that has been proven to result in car accidents, stabbing, rapes, and general violence which add more pressure on our already over stretched doctors and nurses,” she said.

However, Mabuyane told eNCA that they were considering lobbying for a ban of alcohol in the Eastern Cape.

“Alcohol is a problem generally and in our command council as a province, we said probably we must go back to national and lobby to really close down this problem of alcohol,” he said, adding that they were concerned at the rate some people had celebrated the unbanning of alcohol.

Mabuyane is the latest politician to campaign for the banning of alcohol after EFF leader Julius Malema strongly opposed the lifting of the ban, while Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has been on a one man campaign for an alcohol free SA. — DispatchLIVE

This is a developing story.