Drunk drivers may not face jail

SA Breweries and the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders last week launched an alcohol and road offences initiative in Cape Town.

The initiative provides for drivers convicted and sentenced for drunk driving to take part in a "special educational, therapeutic programme" run by the institute.

Offenders will not be jailed but will still have a criminal record.

Soraya Solomon, the institute's chief executive, said sending drunk drivers to prison would only exacerbate drinking problems.

"If we are to fight driving under the influence of alcohol in a meaningful way, we cannot simply punish [offenders] without addressing faulty thinking patterns and the behaviours that result [from them]," said Solomon at the launch of the initiative.

"Not only do offenders avoid going to trial and the possibility of incarceration, they are also given the opportunity to change unacceptable behaviour, repair the damage they have caused and acquire fundamental life skills to avoid further problems with alcohol," she said.

Vincent Maphai, SA Breweries' corporate affairs executive director, said drunk driving gave the beer brewer a headache.

He said the initiative would take "the pressure off our prosecution and justice system so that it can focus on cases more serious than minor traffic lapses".

"[We have] been involved in [promoting] responsible consumption of alcohol for a while now. We built alcohol training centres designed to speed up the collection of evidence and prosecutions.

"Then we discovered this one - giving first offenders the chance of rehabilitation instead of going straight to jail. That is where [the institute] came in."

The initiative will be piloted in Cape Town and if it was successful, Maphai said, it would be introduced to the rest of the country.

Hisham Mohamed, Western Cape head of the Department of Justice, welcomed the move .

Source: The Times via I-Net Bridge