Africa-Press – Mozambique. The municipality of Matola-Rio, in Maputo province, southern Mozambique, yesterday began seizing cheap, high-proof alcoholic beverages sold in markets and stalls near schools, an official source announced.
“Our municipal police and inspectors will be on the streets to enforce this measure. We have already decided that we do not want to see these beverages for sale,” Matola-Rio mayor Abdul Gafur told the press during street inspections.
“We have already raised awareness and, from now on, if anyone continues to sell them, our municipal police will collect them,” the mayor warned.
According to Abdul Gafur, authorities found that most of the stalls selling alcoholic beverages line the corridors leading to schools, leading to students and other young people becoming “addicted”, especially since the beverage is “cheap and easily acquired, which facilitates consumption.”
The mayor of Matola-Rio also said he spoke with the owners of factories producing high-alcohol beverages and, after noticing that they had a production line for this beverage, known as ‘xivotxongo’, “emphatically requested” that they stop production.
“They agreed to stop this production line, and will [continue] to produce all the others, except this line of cheap beverages, ‘xivotxongo’,” Mayor Gafur said.
The Mozambican government affirmed last week on Tuesday that it would halt the production of high-alcohol beverages, which have already proven to be “harmful to society”, especially for young people.
“What must be done is to close these factories that produce this harmful product. This doesn’t mean shutting down a beverage factory, but it is the production of a specific product line that is consumed and has been proving harmful to society, particularly young people,” Council of Ministers spokesperson Inocêncio Impissa told the media.
The government representative added that a committee, led by the Ministry of Economy, has already been created to monitor and oversee the institutions that produce these beverages.
The Mozambican government previously announced that it had temporarily suspended the issuance of licenses for the production and sale of alcoholic beverages in the country, with the aim of curbing “early consumption” by minors.
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