South Africa: As Alcohol Sparks Apartheid-Style Repression Once More, We Must All Be Alarmed

opinion

In one of the liquor-linked lockdown abuses by the security forces, members of the SANDF stand accused of beating to death a man in Alexandra they found drinking in his own yard.

Among the sickening images of security force abuses during the Covid-19 lockdown is that showing the pouring away of a large quantity of home-brewed beer by the police in the Eastern Cape. This action has deprived people of nutrition, as umqombothi, like utshwala, is sorghum-based. It also conjures up the similar disturbing images of the apartheid police destroying large quantities of home-brewed liquor in Cato Manor in 1959 - action which fuelled the growing opposition of the oppressed to apartheid policies.

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