If police minister Bheki Cele had his way, tavern patrons would find themselves on the receiving end of a 30-minute lecture about how to use alcohol responsibly before they are served.
Cele addressed a tavern gender-based violence dialogue in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on Thursday. The awareness campaign, supported by the National Liquor Traders organisation, was attended by tavern owners, patrons and NGOs.
“Today is about gender-based violence and alcohol. I don’t know why people think I hate alcohol, but when people see Cele they say, ‘Cele hates alcohol.’ No. I don’t hate alcohol but the bad deeds that flow from its consumption. Separate between bad actions and alcohol. I choose not to drink. You can choose it. You choose to drink but your choice to drink does not make you an animal and undermine the people who don’t drink,” said Cele.
“One thing we are calling upon is that there should be proper education on how to use alcohol socially. Maybe those that run taverns should take 30 minutes. Thank them [patrons] that are there and ask them to behave properly and that when they leave, they should not beat their wife and kids and not overindulge. Then let them drink. Talk to them before they get drunk.”
The tavern owners shouted in response: “We do that. We are social workers.”
Cele urged them to amplify their “lessons”.
“That’s a good thing. Don’t stop. Even if they don’t listen, but some people do listen.”
He told the youth women were not “commodities”.
“Women are not there to be bought by you,” he said.
“They are not packets of sugar or salt. If you buy a woman drinks, that does not mean she has to pay with her body. That cannot be allowed. And that should not happen. Women are human beings, they have full rights to be human. People think women are there to be protected, that is a wrong concept. It’s not your duty, men, to protect the women. Because once you think you have to protect her you regard her as your pet.”
Cele added: “You regard her as your dog, as one of your pets. Women are not your pets, men. They are fully fledged human beings. They need their space to fly high and be given an opportunity to grow ... Most of the time they fly higher than men when it comes to leadership.”
He said God should have made it law that men died before women.
“He was supposed to make it a law,” he said. “I know that men die first, but it was supposed to be God’s law that men die before women. Do you know the chaos when a woman dies first? You see it from the outside that there is chaos in that family. When a man dies, you see order.”
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