Look, I understand the ban on alcohol and cigarettes but expecting people to go complete cold turkey is extremely dangerous. Especially in South Africa, where the reliance on these products was built over decades of oppression. Addiction cannot be something taken this lightly.

It takes years in the right environment and with the right support for someone to get through their addictions and even then it’s still a lifelong process.

The people in our country have literally been conditioned to associate alcohol with contentment, so if you’re surprised by the violence taking place across townships over alcohol then you really need a wake up call to the realities of this country.

Laws and support structures should have been put in places YEARS ago to reduce the reliance on alcohol and nicotine because we’ve seen the negative implications it has on our society and it’s not like civil society hasn’t been calling for it.

And please let’s not quietly forget this when this lockdown is over. We NEED to put programmes and structures in place to responsibly deal with alcohol and nicotine addiction.