I think I speak for all Capetonians when I say wtf is up with tighter restrictions on the Mother City’s drinking time?! If you haven’t heard of this I suggest you put your mid-morning margarita down and give the following a read. The new by-laws stipulate that from January the new drinking hours for pubs, clubs and restaurants would be 11:00 to 02:00, instead of the current 10:00 start, with an option to continue to 04:00. For liquor stores and supermarkets, the liquor trading hours would be 09:00 to 18:00. Currently the hours are 08:00 to 20:00. Many community leaders have come forward in support of the restrictions. I challenge these so-called community leaders to zip through traffic after work on a Friday afternoon to try and catch Tops in Vredehoek open. I dare them to experience the disappointment of standing in front of a fenced off wine aisle on a Sunday afternoon. I don’t give a flying Jagermeister about substance abuse on the Cape Peninsula; it’s the people using substances responsibly who are starting to suffer now. Things are already tough in Cape Town as it is with Fish Hoek completely devoid of liquor stores. Now they want to turn the City Bowl into a Jannie Verjaar pit. What’s next? Virgin Mary happy hours and non-alcoholic beer fests? The inhumanity. And why only Cape Town? I’ve been to Joburg twice and saw people drink there both times. They drink in Sandton, they drink in Melville, they drink in Soweto. They drink everywhere so why not slap them with an alcohol curfew? I’ll tell you why. Because they need their alcohol to numb out the monotony of their surroundings. Cape Town has a magnificent mountain, sea and splendour. It’s easy to see why the authorities might think Capetonians do not need alcohol to have a good time but this is where they are wrong. Cape Town is the party capital of Africa. To party you need alcohol and you need it at times convenient to you. Cape Town has an image to uphold and withholding alcohol from persons aged 18 years or older is not helping. In a town already famous for sleeping is it really necessary to compound the problem by throwing sobriety into the mix? No, it isn’t. Please sirs and ma’ms, review your decision and let us drink. We promise to pass out in an orderly fashion at an agreeable time.
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