Stakeholder arguments during the adoption of a sugar sweetened beverage tax in South Africa and their influence: a content analysis

ABSTRACT

Background

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes are recognised as an effective intervention to prevent obesity. More countries are adopting SSB taxes, but the process of the adoption is politically complex.

Objective

This study aimed to analyse how public participation processes influenced the South African tax.

Methods

We conducted a content analysis of documents associated with the process of adopting the tax. Records were identified utilising the Parliamentary Monitoring Group database, including draft bills, meeting minutes and written submissions. The records were categorised and then inductively coded to identify themes and arguments.

Results

We identified six cross-cutting themes advanced by stakeholders: economic considerations, impact on the vulnerable, responsiveness of an SSB tax to the problem of obesity, appropriateness of an SSB tax in South Africa, procedural concerns, and structure of the tax. Stakeholder views and arguments about the tax diverged based on their vested interests. The primary policymaker was most responsive to arguments concerning the economic impact of a tax, procedural concerns and the structure of the tax, reducing the effective rate to address industry concerns.

Conclusion

Both supportive and opposing stakeholders influenced the tax. Economic arguments had a significant impact. Arguments in South Africa broadly echoed arguments advanced in many other jurisdictions.

KEYWORDS:

• Obesity
• diet-relatednon-communicable diseases
• non-communicable diseases
• sugary beverages
• fiscal policy

Responsible Editor

Stig Wall

Responsible Editor

Stig Wall

Acknowledgements

The authors thank and acknowledge the assistance provided by Prof Gill Nelson, Patience Mushamiri and Kelly Kropman.

Author contributions

Conceptualization SAK; Methodology SAK and PK; Data Collection SAK and PK; Analysis PK and SAK; Validation: NM, PK, Writing – Original Draft Preparation SAK and PK; Writing – Review & Editing PK, NM, AE,SAK, SG, KJH.; Supervision, SG and KJH All authors approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics and consent

We relied on publicly available information and conducted a documentary desk-based review; as such, no human participants were involved. An ethics waiver was provided by the University of the Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee (clearance certificate no. HRECNMW20/07/05).

Paper context

Taxation of sugary beverages is often controversial. The adoption and form of taxes may be influenced by a variety of stakeholders. This paper analyses the participation of different stakeholders in the process of adopting such a tax in South Africa to understand their influence on the final policy. We found that the policy was influenced positively and negatively by stakeholders with the financial and health impact of the tax being the most influential arguments advanced.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support comes from International Research Development Council [Grant number 108424-001], with additional support from the SAMRC/Wits Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA [Grant number 23108].