File picture: Nokuthula Mbatha File picture: Nokuthula Mbatha
Pretoria - Taxing sugar-sweetened drinks with the hope of reducing obesity would not work because of the availability of alternative products, people opposing the country’s imminent sugar tax have said.
But others have said the introduction of the tax would raise awareness of the dangers of sugar and encourage people to drink more water.
The debate on the proposed introduction of a 20-percent tax on sweetened drinks has raged on since Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan made the announcement in February, with one group of citizens accusing government of trying to assume a nanny role and another saying the minister should provide more points to justify it.
“South Africa needs one (sugar tax),” socio-economic rights activist Professor Jan Hofmeyr said. “The levels of obesity are massive and if not curbed, will rise to rival HIV/Aids, TB and diabetes.”
He said sweetened drinks were more easily available because of the small businessman empowered to activate the township economy. “So cold drinks are no longer a luxury or hard to get. People in informal settlements and rural areas prefer them over artificially sweetened drinks.”
And the habit was to finish them off to avoid having to consume them warm, and this contributed to no less than 25 percent of teenage girls in rural areas fighting obesity, Hofmeyr said.
The taxing of sweetened drinks has also attracted outrage from producers of the beverages, the bottlers and other pockets of society.
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PRETORIA NEWS