Alcohol remains the dominant substance of abuse in South Africa. Chronic and excessive consumption accounts for 7.1% of deaths and 7% of disabilities says the South African Medical Research Council (SACENDU)
This is placed in sharp contrast to international statistics of 3.8% of global deaths and the 4.5% of alcohol related causes of disability. According to SACENDU the mean age for admissions has dropped from 37 to 28 years. This means that people are drinking excessively at an earlier stage, developing a dependency which requires treatment.
Ashveer Kewalpershad Communications Manager for the Association for Alcohol Responsibility and Education (aware.org) points out that students coming to university are particularly at risk because of an existing drinking culture, coupled with students’ newly established sense of freedom.
“We know that [alcohol] impacts the brain development, and that’s why we have a minimum drinking age of 18 in South Africa.” says Kewalpershad, “Even at the age of 25 your brain is still developing so the younger you are and the more alcohol you consume it hampers or effects the way your brain actually develops… Your brain is tired and tiredness is an effect of alcohol consumption.”
Kewalpershad also believes that people do not know how to identify their limits or even know what binge drinking is.
Aware.org encourages moderate consumption while educating young South Africans on the harmful effects of binge drinking and its ability to prevent the retention of information at university level.
Savannah Snow, a 23-year old Education student and member on the SUpport Mental Health Task Team encourages students to learn moderate consumption rather than using incessant consumption as a coping mechanism.
“The issue is that drinking is only an immediate solution and not long term,” says Snow.
“This means you’re building up a tolerance to your intake of alcohol while doing this which leads to a vicious cycle of drinking more to get the same form of escapism,” says Snow.She goes on to say that “a lot of the activities that there are to do in Stellies revolve around drinking – wine tasting, gin tasting, beer tasting, going to the square.. etc.” (The square is a reference to the block of clubs situated in the centre of Stellenbosch).
Tin Roof Stellenbosch bouncer, Levi Makofi, believes that drinking culture has gotten better over the years with students becoming better behaved. Makofi has worked in the industry for over 12 years, nine of which were spent in Stellenbosch.
According to Makofi, “Back in the day, Stellenbosch was referred to as ‘WWE’ because all students wanted to do was fight”.
Makofi credits the aggression of previous years to students’ consumption of steroids. “They use to use steroids to get big and steroids make people short temper,” he says. “Because students use to be huge. They use to look big like rugby player.”
Reflecting on his experiences in 2019, Makofi points out that he hasn’t witnessed any students who were “passed out in the toilets like there used to be two or three years ago”.