Desperate drinkers using baby bottles to smuggle booze onto beaches

Increasingly desperate attempts to smuggle liquor onto public beaches – including the use of children’s juice and milk bottles – has prompted a call for stricter penalties for those flouting the bylaws.

Would-be beach drinkers even go as far as disguising their alcohol as babies wrapped in blankets, according to the city’s MMC for safety and security JP Smith. “We cannot carry on like this, and perhaps it is time to consider instituting stronger measures against transgressors,” Smith said in a statement issued on Thursday.

City law enforcement confiscated 18,584 bottles (6,699 litres) between December 1 last year and January 2 (Monday), a significant increase on the last two lockdown years However the confiscated volume was less than pre-Covid levels, a decrease possibly explained by attempts to smuggle liquor into public spaces using smaller containers.

“Our alcohol confiscations soared, and while there is a drop in the overall litres confiscated, that is only because people are employing different tactics to get alcohol into public spaces. Bottles of spirits have now become sachets; large beers have been replaced by smaller bottles,” Smith said.

Law enforcement also clamped down on other infringements, with a total of 686 arrests and 23,070 fines issued during the holiday period to date.

Cape Town traffic officers arrested 273 motorists for driving under the influence, and a further 46 for reckless and negligent driving.

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