Sunday 2 June 2013

Grahamstown's growing illicit alcohol problem



Her enormous frame takes up the largest part of the double bed, and the acrid smell of stale liquor hangs in the air. Her huge head, triple chin and unruly matted hair bring to mind the figure of the Great Goblin King from the movie The Hobbit. Her sluggish demeanour further re-enforces the image of a large, goblinesque figure grunting orders from a soiled throne. She broods over her hovel in Fingo Village, Grahamstown just as the Goblin King broods over his lair in the Misty Mountains. Kittens frolic amid a sea of empty liquor bottles strewn across a filthy floor and flies buzz angrily around her head. Bedridden from gout and surrounded by poverty and squalor, local illegal beer brewer ‘Mam Siwe’ is the kingpin of the Mtshovalale beer brewers in Grahamstown. Constant police raids, confiscations and hefty fines have turned Mam Siwe into a wily character. She vehemently denies that she is still involved in the brewing and sale of this illegal beer. Although a large 250 litre drum full of potent orange beer greets you at the entrance of her house.  Ask any local where you can buy a vat of Mtshovalale and they will point you in the direction of Mam Siwe’s.

Mtshovalale (potionsleep) and Imbamba are the street names for illegal beer sold in Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. Unregulated and uncontrolled, these brews are sometimes laced with anything from common household products to battery fluid and methylated spirits. They can pose severe health risks to the people who consume them.  Despite numerous measures enacted by the government to curb the consumption of alcohol in South Africa, the prolific trade in these brews shows a large oversight by the government to address the illicit trade of alcohol in some of South Africa’s poorest areas.
 
The brewing and sale of illicit alcohol in Grahamstown’s informal settlement stands as testament to this problem. Mam Siwe is just one of many women in and around Grahamstown who brew Mtshovalale to make a living. “I have to support my family, I have 15 people living here, in this house” she says. Although she claims to have retired from the Mtshovalale business, police confirm that vats of beer are confiscated from her premises in Victoria Road on a weekly basis. When in business, Mam Siwe says she sold about 30 to 50 litres of this beer a day at a cost of R2,50 to R3 a litre. The brew is generally made from a concoction of malt, loaves of yeast, pineapples, sugar and bread, many other substances such as methylated spirits and battery fluid are rumoured to give the brews a stronger kick.

Police confiscate bottles of Mtshovalale from brewers on a weekly basis
The brew is the colour of dark orange urine.  The darker the colour, the more potent the brew is said to be. It smells like fermented yeast and pungent sourdough.  Acidic and overripe pineapples leave a rancid taste on your tongue and the pongy fumes linger on your breath long after the beer has been consumed. The beer is stored in cheap plastic ‘Cape Storm’ bottles and the yeast content is so high that it causes the bottles to swell and distort. Locals describe it as ‘potionsleep’ because it causes lethargy and reduces one’s appetite. The high consumption of this beer coupled a with a lack of appetite can cause one to become very ill. Other health side effects include extreme bloating, listlessness and fatigue.

On Bathurst Street, less than a kilometre away from Mam Siwe’s abode, undertaker, Leon Klaas, of Siyakubonga Funeral Homes tells of his experiences in dealing with the bodies of people who have succumbed to drinking-related deaths. Klaas deals with two to three dead bodies a month which have died from drinking related illnesses. “The people who die of drinking too much of the Mtshovalale are very very thin” says Klaas. “Their skin becomes soft and rubs off very quickly, sometimes we have to put sawdust on the bodies to stop them from leaking, they also smell very bad, like old beer and  dirty alcohol” he says. It is thought that the high content of yeast and other strong chemicals causes the bodies to decompose quicker than normal which could explain why the bodies seem to ‘leak’ and the ‘skin rubs off’.

The Mtshovalale problem is not a new one for the Grahamstown Police Department. “The consumption of this concoction is becoming a concern for the SAPS, we are on a regular basis visiting these places where the concoction is being brewed and destroying it,” says Mali Govender, spokesperson for South African Police Service (SAPS) in Grahamstown.  According to Govender, no surveys have been conducted to establish who the brewers are and what ingredients they are using in their brews. Police are also unaware of how widespread the problem is. Illicit alcohol is not taxed or regulated and there is hardly any information available on the patterns of its consumption and the related outcomes, not only in Grahamstown but also in other parts of South Africa. Other African countries experience their fair share of illicit homebrewed concoctions. For example, Zimbabwe has its version of ‘Scud’, Kenya has ‘Jet 5’, Botswana has ‘tho-tho-tho’ (dizzy spell) and Nigeria has Palm Wine (crazy man in the bottle).

The lack of adequate information as well as the lack of measures in place to reduce the sale and consumption of these homebrews is problematic because the illicit alcohol industry poses a large danger to public health and the government fiscus. In addition to evading excise duties and taxes on their products, illicit alcohol blenders such as Mam Siwe have very little regard for sanitation and the safety of their customers. Illegal alcohol products are generally made in unhygienic backyard premises or garages and in some cases there is evidence that illicit alcohol manufacturing is used to fund other forms of organised crime. It is also estimated that illegal alcohol operators generate millions of Rands in tax free revenue. Mam Siwe has been such an obstinate nuisance in Grahamstown that police eventually called in the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to conduct a tax audit on her and found that she owed SARS R27 000 in unpaid taxes due to the lucrative nature of her business activities. She allegedly paid the money and thereafter continued to conduct her illegal alcohol operations.

The 'bin of beer' that greets you at the entrance of Mam Siwe's home a thick layer of grime coats the inside rim of the container.

It is mainly the elderly and the unemployed who frequent these taverns and consume this homemade beer. Its attraction lies in its affordability and accessibility. Take for example, Marc Fourie, a 49 year old man often found loitering outside a tavern near Currie Street in Grahamstown, Cape Storm bottle full of Mtshovalale, clutched in his bony hand. He drinks Mtshovalale on a daily basis. In fact he drinks Mtshovalale as if it was water. “I love drinking Mtshovalale, even though it gives me a babalas” he says, after downing 2 litre bottle of the putrid brew as if he were dying of thirst. Fourie has no work and lives off government grants and a measly pension. He occasionally does odd jobs around town to earn a quick buck which he quickly converts into a litre bottle of Mtshovalale. He says he is 49 but he looks as if he is 70. His clothes hang onto his skinny frame and it seems as if cataracts have taken over his eyes.  Whether this aging is due to years of stress, poverty and unemployment or the mere fact that he is drinking this unsavoury liquor is unclear, it’s probably a combination of both.

According to the World Health organisation (WHO), South Africa has one of the highest per capita consumption rates of alcohol in the world and it is continuing to rise. The South African Medical Journal, states that the cost to the fiscus relating to absenteeism, poor productivity, high job turnover, interpersonal conflict, injuries and damage to property is estimated to be around R9 Billion per year. This figure is equivalent to almost 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Various measures such as the proposed ban of the sale of alcohol in the Gauteng province on Sundays and a potential ban of alcohol advertising to curb the sale and consumption of alcohol have been met with mixed reactions. “The abuse of alcohol is a multi-faceted problem for which there is no simple solution.” says Adrian Botha, spokesman for the Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol. He adds that “government should address the underlying causes of the abuse in the country instead of choosing ‘simple solutions’ that would not have the desired outcome”.

Everyone has heard about Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi's contentious plans to increase the drinking age to 21, ban alcohol advertising and, most controversially, stop alcohol sales on Sundays. His plan is aimed at curbing the country's alcohol consumption levels and reducing the 130 deaths that occur every day from alcohol-related diseases, to target the country's record number of road accidents, in most of which alcohol is involved, and to reduce alcohol-related crime and domestic abuse. These measures merely scratch the surface of the problems and may have unintended consequences.
         Mam Siwe's house on the corner of Victoria Road in Grahamstown


 Given the choice, unemployed people like Marc Fourie will always choose cheaper, lower quality, non-commercial alcohol such as Mtshovalale over more expensive commercial alcohol. When a litre of Mtshovalale is sold for R2,50 a pop it’s no wonder that it has gained such popularity amongst South Africa’s lowest income earners. According to the Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use, “Public awareness campaigns of the dangers of consuming illicit alcohol are critical as illicit alcohol poses health risks due to bacterial contamination or methanol poisoning.” In addition more rural research is necessary to understand the roots of the problem so that necessary steps can be taken to eradicate it.