Policing Taverns and Shebeens: Observation, experience and discourse

Abstract

This article sketches the views and experiences of police officials responsible for enforcing liquor legislation in the Nyanga precinct of Cape Town. It is intended as a complementary response to Herrick & Charman’s article, Shebeens and crime: The multiple criminalities of South African liquor and its regulation (SACQ 45) and should be read together with that piece. Their article drew on data gathered from shebeen owners and raised important questions about the efficacy and potential harm of the policing of shebeens.1 By describing incidents of alcohol-related law enforcement, this article suggests that such work can be as difficult and confusing for law enforcers as it is for those being policed. It supports Herrick and Charman’s suggestion that current approaches to alcohol-related enforcement need to be interrogated in order to reduce harms without alienating communities.