IN QUOTES | Helen Zille says South Africa has an ‘alcohol problem’, but doesn’t back booze ban

DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille says South Africa has a serious alcohol problem, but the party does not believe in the government's ban on liquor sales.

Zille was speaking on the DA's webcast hosted by the party's national spokesperson, Siviwe Gwarube.

The outspoken politician also weighed in on the party's court action on the vaccine rollout.

Here are five key quotes from the webcast.

Alcohol crisis in SA and Western Cape  

“We do have an alcohol crisis in SA and Western Cape, and change in behaviour is a massive challenge. This is not done by government bans and prohibitions but, trying to ensure that policies are in place that encourage behaviour change.”

Poverty means death and hunger

“I don't really go with the juxtaposition between livelihoods and lives because in the end if you take people's livelihoods away, you take their lives away and poverty means death and hunger.”

Alcohol should be freely available

“We really need to become a society where alcohol is freely available and people make responsible choices. Some of the policy interventions that the DA did was to look at legalising liquor outlets at a certain ratio of liquor outlets per head of populations, but then we are really going to take tough actions against the illegal liquor outlets.”

Sensible policies in place

“We don't believe in the government's prohibition because we know what happens as a result of that ... we need to have sensible policies that protect children, women, and societies from alcohol abuse.”

Court action on the vaccine rollout

"[President Cyril] Ramaphosa wants a get-out-of-jail-free card by blaming the West for having ordered in time. We didn't order in time, and now we're blaming everyone else. We’re asking the court to give an order to ensure that Ramaphosa answers the questions that [John] Steenhuisen has put to him, to which we’ve had no answers yet.”