South Africa, in seeking to eradicate obesity, has joined the battle against sugar by becoming the first African country to plan a tax on drinks loaded with the sweet stuff.
The country’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan introduced the tax on everything from carbonated soft drinks to flavoured water in February’s budget release, partly as a way to tackle the country’s bulging budget deficit, but also to deal with people’s bulging waistlines.
Obesity levels around the world have been soaring in the past couple of decades and South Africa has not been left behind.
According to a 2014 World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, one in four South Africans are obese.
A 2013 study by the Human Sciences Research Council in Johannesburg pointed the finger at sugar as being one of the possible culprits, saying that one in five South Africans consume an excessive amount of sugar.
The average South African, according to the results from a survey of 25,000 people, consumes 17 teaspoons of sugar a day.
