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Drunk mommy forgets baby at one-night stand

A Cape Town mom got so drunk she forgot her baby at the home of a man she had a one-night stand with.

The 22-year-old mom says she forgot she had taken her child with her to a shebeen where she met a man she spent the night with.

Noxolo Lugwali, 22, had her whole Garden City, Mfuleni, community and cops mobilised looking for her two-year-old baby Linathi.

Meanwhile, the child was safely at the home of the unsuspecting lover who woke on Tuesday morning to find the mother had left without her baby.

Noxolo told the Daily Voice she had gone out on Monday evening to have a few drinks.

“I usually go with my child to the shebeen and drink while she is there,” she explained.

“I don’t know what came over me this time.”

She said she went home with a man she met at the Bardale shebeen and the next morning she went home without Linathi – and only realised hours later that the toddler was not with her.

It was after neighbours asked here where her child was on Tuesday afternoon that she started looking for her.

“I searched the whole area and didn’t find my daughter and then, after a while, I remembered that I went to that man’s house,” said Noxolo.

“When I arrived there, he told me he had been looking after her while I left her there.”

When the Daily Voice arrived at Noxolo’s home, the toddler was playing outside and her mother was sleeping inside the shack and had no idea that her baby was outside playing unattended.

Noxolo’s mother Nomaza Lugwali said: “My daughter only cares about alcohol and men and she doesn’t care about her own little girl.

“She has been in Cape Town for six weeks but she acts like she has been here for a long time.

“If I go to work, she takes her child to the shebeen and even though she has a boyfriend here, she will go to sleep somewhere else.”

Nomaza said she is grateful her grandchild is back home.

But she added that she would be sending her daughter to a special youth development centre so she can learn to be more responsible.

- Daily Voice

SAB "helps" with alcohol syndrome?

The Department of Social Development and SA Breweries are talking about how to tackle the high incidence of foetal alcohol syndrome.

The syndrome - which includes mental incapacity of children whose mothers drank alcohol while pregnant - is a big problem in Northern Cape and Western Cape, where a study has found 122 of 1000 children affected by it. (That makes it a whole 12%!)

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini, SAB executives, academics and other experts are holding a two-day indaba in Boksburg, on the East Rand, to develop ways of dealing with the problem.

Dlamini said: "While aware that the SAB is in the business of selling liquor for profit, we welcome this partnership, because it shows that they have put national interest ahead of making profit at the expense of the people." OH FUCKING REALLY? 30000 shebeens in the Western Cape! Where did all that come from?

SAB's executive director for corporate affairs and transformation, Vincent Maphai, said: "This partnership between industry, experts and the government allows for the best utilisation of skills and resources to drive a meaningful and effective impact on the lives of South Africans affected by the abuse of alcohol."

The department and SAB said yesterday the indaba would try to "generate terms of reference for the appointment of an NGO to rollout the agreed programme [for fighting the syndrome]". (from TimesLive)

And in other news... SAB's earning rise by 16%

The world's second-biggest brewer, which earns more than 80% of its profits from emerging markets, said Africa and Asia had fully recovered, while high unemployment in mature markets was holding back any upturn in beer sales.

Chief executive Graham Mackay yesterday painted a picture of a two-speed world, with beer volumes growing in Africa and Asia and recovering in Latin America after a tax rise in Colombia, while the western world saw little improvement. (also from TimesLive)

Cape Town's drunk driving spree continues unabated

City and provincial authorities have arrested more than 2 500 motorists for drunk driving in the Western Cape in the past five months – an average of more than 500 a month.

A total of at least 2 555 motorists have been arrested since June - a figure compiled by the Cape Times from statistics provided by the City of Cape Town’s traffic service, provincial traffic service and metro police traffic officers, who conduct separate or integrated roadblocks but keep separate statistics.

These figures have been compiled as new campaigns have been launched to raise awareness about drunk-driving, campaigns which authorities say appear to be starting to shift driver attitudes.

Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said the number of drunk-driving arrests made monthly were affected by factors such as sporting events, the time of the month and the location of roadblocks.

Provincial traffic officers were responsible for main and national roads in the Western Cape and held 24 roadblocks each weekend.

In July this year provincial traffic officers arrested 198 drunk drivers, the highest number of arrests the provincial traffic service recorded in five months.

Africa attributed this to the World Cup during which a number of people had travelled between provinces to get to and from matches.

Numbers arrested spiked again in October when provincial traffic officers arrested 160 motorists for drunk driving, a figure up by 46 compared to the previous month.

“One of the main reasons it went up is because there were more rugby matches and other sporting events during the month.

“We also changed our strategy and went from static roadblocks to moving roadblocks which move from area to area,” Africa said.

Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz said a range of factors affected the number of drunk-driving arrests made weekly.

“It’s very interesting how sports and other big events in Cape Town actually affect the arrests,” he said.

Merle Lourens, spokeswoman for the City of Cape Town’s traffic service, said four or five roadblocks were held a month in and around the city, not necessarily in the same areas each time.

She said the location of roadblocks depended on, among other factors, the accident rate in a particular area.

About 25 officers were deployed to each City of Cape Town roadblock.

The metro police also held roadblocks within the city, mostly over weekends.

Deputy metro police chief Yolanda Faro said the time and place of operations was planned according to offence patterns and crime threat analysis.

She said extra roadblocks and visible policing were planned for the festive season to clamp down on drunk driving.

Transport MEC Robin Carlisle said the figure of more than 2 500 arrests in five months was “extraordinarily high”, even by international standards.

But Carlisle said a number of initiatives aimed at clamping down on drunk driving had recently started bearing fruit.

These included the “Name and Shame” campaign which started last month and which involves the names of convicted drunk drivers being published.

“What we are finding, and that’s through chatting to people on buses, etc, is that they are aware of the campaign. There’s a change in attitude.

“We want to get the message across that it’s simply not worth having that extra glass of wine,” Carlisle said.

Fritz agreed that there appeared to be a shift in behaviour very recently.

Regarding the Name and Shame campaign, he said: “People are apparently petrified about this campaign.

“They’re really worried, so aren’t drinking and driving,” he said.

Fritz said extra visible policing and roadblocks seemed to result in fewer motorists taking chances.

Africa agreed that extra operations and the campaigns appeared to be working.

“The message is really getting out now. We won’t stop with the roadblocks until we’re not making any more drunk-driving arrests.

“There’s definitely a change in driver behaviour. We’ve received many phone calls from motorists saying they won’t be driving drunk any more because, for example, a friend or a colleague on Facebook told them not to drink and drive,” he said.

After radio broadcasts in which motorists were urged not to drink and drive, Africa said there was a decrease in the number of arrests being made in roadblocks.

“Motorists are adhering to our call.” (from IOL)

Shorter Liquor purchasing for Cape Town

Cape Town's drinkers will have less time to buy liquor or spend in pubs next year, the City said on Wednesday.

In terms of a new by-law, from January the new drinking hours for pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels would be 11am to 2am, instead of the current 10am start, with an option to continue to 4am.

For liquor stores and supermarkets, the liquor trading hours would be 9am to 6pm. Currently the hours were 8am to 8pm.

The councillor who chaired the City's liquor policy task team, Taki Amira, said it had been difficult to please everybody in the drafting of the new by-law.

"With over 3.6 million residents from widely divergent social environments, the City of Cape Town has a responsibility to treat all citizens equally and to help fight the scourge of alcohol abuse," he said.

"The City has tried to strike a balance between the hospitality industry which preferred longer trading hours, and community leaders who insisted on tighter regulations." (from IOL)

Premier signs Drink Driving Pledge - will it change the way people behave?

Western Cape premier Helen Zille has become the first South African to sign her name to an international campaign to combat drunk driving.

"We are very much hoping... that drinking and driving becomes as much of a taboo in South Africa as it is in many other countries in the world," she said.

The campaign, called Join the Pact, is run internationally by whisky maker Johnnie Walker, and was launched locally by the brand's local distributor Brandhouse Beverages.

Zille said at the Cape Town ceremony Tuesday that everyone should get into the "wonderful habit" of ensuring that if they went out and had a few drinks, there was a designated non-drinking driver to fall back on.

She joked that the way to avoid the hassle of deciding who was going to be the designated driver was to get elected into public office and get appointed as a premier or Cabinet minister.

"Then you have a driver who's a permanent designated driver and who's never allowed to drink so that you can have a few, and sit in the back, and feel good about life."

Brandhouse managing director Gerald Mahinda said South Africans needed to remind themselves of the tragic consequences of people who chose to drink and drive.

"If you choose to drink, make a plan so you don't have to drive," he said.

"We need to be the change that we want to see, and to take responsibility for our actions."

Taking responsibility for their actions is not something the alcohol industry is very good at. How come there are 30000 shebeens in the Western Cape? The alcohol industry supports these illegal operations and has in fact been setting them up. What about letting inebriated patrons leave the alcohol industry's licenced premises when it is obvious that they are about to drive home? Is that called taking responsibility?