As the world commemorates the World Diabetes Day, the Healthy Living Alliance (Heala) has intensified its call for government to increase the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), also known as the sugar tax.
It is reported that more than 4 million South Africans are living with the life-altering illness diabetes, half of those being undiagnosed.
Health experts say diabetes comes at a high personal and public cost. In 2018 it was estimated that the public sector costs of undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes were R2.7 billion, and when considering the undiagnosed, that number shoots up to a staggering R21.bn.
This week, Heala’s programme manager, Nzama Mbalati, revealed that delays in increasing the HPL are a danger to South Africans.
He said an increase of sugar tax to the recommended 20% to reduce the over consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and decrease the incidence of diabetes among South Africans would promote healthy living.
“New research points to an alarming trend of a dramatic increase in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in Sub-Saharan region. That region had the highest increase in SSB consumption between 2005 and 2018 (2 servings/week increase) while in high income countries consumption decreased by about one serving/week,” Mbalati said.
However, organisations such as SA Canegrowers are opposed to an increase in the sugar tax.
The association said it was deeply disappointed by Minister Enoch Godongwana’s announcement in his recent Mid-term Budget speech that the HPL (or sugar tax) will increase from 2.21 to 2.31 cents per gram of sugar, despite no evidence being produced to date that the tax has successfully reduced obesity levels in the country.
Mbalati indicated that there is enough evidence that those who drink between one and two cans of sugar-sweetened beverages have a 26% greater chance of developing Type 2 diabetes than those who limit their consumption.
According to Mbalati, taxes on sugary drinks have been shown to work in reducing the consumption of these drinks.
He indicated that a recent South African study released in 2021, three years after the implementation of the HPL, a levy put in place to support of the Department of Health’s deliverables to decrease diabetes, obesity and other related diseases in South Africa, found that “SSB taxes were associated with reduced sugary drink intake in a low-income population within a middle-income country”.
Mbalati also slammed government for its “lack of political will” to act on their recommendations to increase the sugar tax.
“It’s clear we have reached the crossroads as the country, and key policy decision to significantly increase the sugar tax presents a unique opportunity to halt non-communicable disease rates that have doubled up in the past decade and raise much-needed revenue on the fiscals in the dire strain,” he added.
Dr Lungi Hobe, chairperson at Rural Doctors Association of South Africa, said the cost of diabetes on the individual is high.
“This is a multi-organ disease. So it can affect any organ in someone’s body. The reason for that is that it primarily affects your vessels. Your vessels, as we all know, exist in every organ. You have veins in your eyes that may be affected by diabetes. Patients can end up with what we call diabetes retinopathy. Some patients end up with complete blindness just from diabetes,” Dr Hobe said.
The Star
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