ON THE RECORD... Savera Kalideen, senior Advocacy Manager for Soul City

[...]we could not implement the project in the provinces because the global recession had an effect on our donor funding. In the light of the funding cuts we had to change our strategy and have focused on media work, through our television dramas, and worked on effecting policy change. Since we were looking at alcohol through the lens of safety, we felt it was important to map violence hot spots in communities. Since shebeens and taverns operate in a survivalist way, and we recognise that selling alcohol is one way of making a living, we realised that one of the big issues we need to address is job creation, while also improving safety.