Mbeki tots up the boozing cost
2004-04-02 08:04
East London - President Thabo Mbeki drew laughter at an election rally in East London on Thursday when he put on a convincing imitation of a staggering, slack-jawed, glassy-eyed drunkard.
But his message, which came at the end of the first day of a two-day campaigning roadshow in the Eastern Cape, had a serious message.
"One of the problems that worries me: Friday, Saturday, Sunday," he told more than 1 000 people at Buffalo Park.
"Many of our communities right across South Africa. Too much drinking of alcohol. It's over the weekend.
"And when the people have had too much, they quarrel for something you don't understand. They are quarrelling, they are fighting, they are stabbing, people die."
Other people smoked dagga, he said.
"And you find that they are ill-treating the women, they are ill-treating the children."
Call to help stop drunkenness
It was good to pray for these people so that they should stop drinking. But, in addition to the prayers, something else had to be done.
"Because it's not nice," he said.
"You cannot watch a person going like this, uhhh, uhhh," he said, lurching behind the microphone to the delight of the crowd, "and all you do now is say, 'Ha, ha, ha'. These are our people."
They had to be helped, because in this condition a drunkard was going to take a knife and stab someone, or rape a child.
"We want a government that is going to work with the people to solve these problems," he said.
- SAPA