“Safer roads ahead: South Africa’ s fight against drinking and driving”
The Star reports:
“South Africa continues to grapple with the consequences of drinking and driving, a persistent challenge that is reported to claim hundreds of lives each year.
“In response, the Association for Alcohol Responsibility and Education (AWARE.org) hosted the Don’t Drink & Drive Seminar 2025. The event brought together government, law enforcement, business and civil society to develop actionable strategies to reduce alcohol-related road harm.
“The seminar centred on four key focus areas: education, enforcement, prosecution, and rehabilitation, while calling for stronger behavioural change and collaboration across sectors.
“Held in support of Road Safety Month, the event was attended by Deputy Minister of Transport Mkhuleko Hlengwa.
“AWARE.org CEO Mokebe Thulo addressed the harmful impact of alcohol on communities, calling for a united front in tackling the challenge.
“’When we say driving action for safer roads, it is not just a play on words. Our goal is to help build a society free from the harmful effects of alcohol. South Africans face many ills, some of which we can’t do anything about, but this is something we can solve through commitment and action.’”
Assessment
The Association for Alcohol Responsibility and Education (AWARE.org) hosted the 2025 “Don’t Drink & Drive” seminar, bringing together government, law enforcement, business, and civil-society stakeholders. AWARE.org is funded and governed by the biggest alcohol producers and industry bodies in South Africa – including Diageo, Heineken, Pernod Ricard, the South African Liquor Brandowners Association (SALBA) and SA Wines. Their continued presence in the road safety space in South Africa reflects their long-standing strategy deployed around the world: positioning the industry as a responsible partner while promoting interventions that pose no risk to their commercial interests.
Research shows that such alcohol industry-led initiatives prioritise messaging campaigns over public policy change, diverting attention from cost-effective and evidence-based solutions, such as better enforcement of legal blood alcohol concentration levels through random breath testing controls in traffic, lowering blood alcohol limits, and comprehensive alcohol policy initiatives addressing affordability, availability, and marketing. A scientific analysis of industry partnerships with road safety NGOs highlights how these collaborations create long-term influence channels in policymaking and public communication.
For evidence-based alcohol policy in South Africa, the alcohol industry seminar on alcohol impaired driving means another threat to the ongoing legislative and fiscal policy initiatives.
Alcohol policy advocates have an opportunity to focus on Big Alcohol’s inherent conflict of interest in the road safety agenda, for instance by using examples from other countries, where the same multinational companies have lobbied against evidence-based and WHO-recommended road safety solutions. It is crucial to reclaim the road safety agenda from corporate capture.
The World Health Organization’s manual on alcohol and road crashes makes clear that meaningful progress comes from evidence-based legislative and enforcement measures, not education alone. By exposing the strategic intent behind the alcohol industry’s campaign to use the road safety agenda for its profit maximisation agenda, alcohol policy advocates have an opportunity to re-center the alcohol policy conversation on protective, evidence-based policies that truly prevent and reduce alcohol harm, including traffic fatalities.