CHDS Seminar: A sugary beverage tax in South Africa. Does it work?

Karen Hofman, Research Professor and Director of the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science, PRICELESS SA at the University of Witwatersrand SPH in Johannesburg will present.

Abstract: In 2016, the South African government proposed a 20% sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax. Protracted consultations with beverage manufacturers and the sugar industry followed. In 2018, a lower sugar-based beverage tax of approximately 10% was introduced. This talk will focus on the outcomes of purchases of unhealthy SSBs and sugar intake over the first year and discuss how this differed by socioeconomic quintile. It will also discuss how the current COVID-19 pandemic has implications for food and nutritional security and the importance of intersectoral public health disease-prevention polices.