Illegal alcohol makes up 18% of SA market - and the chemicals added can kill you (study)

The Drinks Federation of South Africa (DF-SA) has sounded the alarm over the extent of the illicit alcohol market in South Africa.

Not only does this have dire consequences for the fiscus through tax evasion and job losses, but consuming these drinks can be deadly for the population.

The Federation says testing done by the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) showed that many illegal products contain dangerous substances that can cause serious harm.

DF-SA research director Dr Shamal Ramesar says these include methanol and industrial-grade ethanol 'in huge concentrations'.

"Methanol causes irreversible blindness;  if it's drunk in high concentrations it causes toxicity of the blood or metabolic acidosis which can lead to multiple organ failure and is almost always accompanied by death. The effects of Industrial-grade alcohol itself also has deleterious effects on the body that include respiratory distress and cardiac failure."

Dr Shamal Ramesar, Research Director - Drinks Federation of SA

"From our study, the consumers actually told us that 29% of them knew of somebody who had died from consuming counterfeit alcohol."

Dr Shamal Ramesar, Research Director - Drinks Federation of SA

Dr Ramesar affirms that, while illegal alcohol has long been present in South Africa, the problem was exacerbated by the alcohol bans during the COVID lockdown.

For more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article