Community members from eNdlovini gathered at the Nemato police station on Monday, July 15 to demand action regarding the alleged sale of expired liquor at a local tavern. Residents claimed that several people had become ill after consuming a particular beverage sold at a local tavern.
One resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Last weekend, my husband purchased the alcohol at half price and became extremely intoxicated in a suspiciously short time.
“When I asked him why he was so drunk, he told me the seller had told him that the alcohol was expired at the time of purchase.”
On the basis of this, she had decided to alert other residents. That launched a series of posts shared on social media, in which dozens claimed that after consuming a certain alcoholic beverage from that tavern, they had suffered severe stomach cramps.
Community safety groups, Anti-Crime and the CPF were alerted. Residents decided to take matters into their own hands and ‘confiscate’ the alcohol.
They took several cases of the offending beverage to the Nemato Police Station, where they told police officers about the claims that it had caused patrons of a particular tavern to become ill. They told the police they were concerned there might be more of the liquor and that other taverns might be serving the same allegedly harmful beverage.
Photographs of the allegedly expired drink shared with Talk of the Town show large rectangularly shaped plastic bottles with red lids, containing a golden-yellow liquid with some bubbles.
A description from one of the people involved in confiscating the product was that while it had a name similar to a well known brand of white wine, it was thicker – “more like traditional beer” in texture.
The group outside Nemato Police Station asked police officers: Will the expired alcohol be confiscated? Will the tavern face closure? Could they expect a thorough inspection?
Ward 7 councillor Sibusiso Zweni said he had contacted the Liquor Board who referred him to an entity that deals with alcohol testing to arrange a time to collect samples for testing. He said the samples were collected on Friday July 19.
“I am not happy at all with the selling of illegal and expired alcohol as I am the councillor of this ward,” Zweni said.
“These are my people falling sick. I am awaiting results from [the standards testing entity] to confirm that that the alcohol has expired so the law can take its course.”
South African Police Service spokesperson Captain Marius McCarthy said in response to Talk of the Town’s query, “We can confirm that Saps Nemato attended a complaint at a local tavern where community members complaint about expired alcohol being sold. Alcohol was confiscated that had expiry dates scratched off and was sent for testing.”
The Eastern Cape Liquor Board had not responded to TOTT’s queries by the time of publishing.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, July 25, 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
