REEP-Vital Strategies partnership enters a third phase with RESET Alcohol Program

24 Sep 2025
RESET Alcohol at Vital Strategies
24 Sep 2025

In August 2025, REEP entered into its third research contract with Vital Strategies' RESET Alcohol Program, marking a continued collaboration in advancing evidence-based alcohol policy research in South Africa. RESET Alcohol's primary policy focus centres on increasing alcohol taxation and implementing other evidence-based pricing policies to reduce alcohol-related harm. 

  • First grant (2024): REEP conducted a comprehensive analysis of South Africa's alcohol excise tax landscape, providing critical baseline data for policy development.
  • Second grant (2024/25): The team developed modelling capabilities to assess the impact of proposed beer excise tax changes on both government revenue and alcohol consumption patterns. The report has been distributed to partners and is available on the REEP website.
  • Third grant (2025/26): Building on the two previous phases, this contract expands REEP's research capacity to support RESET Alcohol's objectives.

The current research project aims to support the National Treasury and pro-health groups in South Africa to implement better tax structures and higher alcohol taxes in South Africa. It is largely triggered by the National Treasury’s review of alcohol taxes, published in November 2024. The main components of this body of work are the following:

  1. Fact sheet package for knowledge translation and dissemination: REEP will transform existing research from both internal studies and external organisations into accessible, digestible outputs tailored for government officials and public health advocates. This knowledge translation initiative aims to bridge the gap between academic research and policy implementation.
  2. Analysis of industry-funded research: The team will analyse research reports funded by the alcohol industry, examining methodological approaches, potential biases, and policy implications to provide policymakers with balanced perspectives on contested evidence.
  3. Public dissemination of National Treasury commentary: Following REEP's comprehensive 31-page response to National Treasury's "Taxation of Alcoholic Beverages" discussion paper, the team will develop a summary to make REEP's analysis accessible to the broader public and civil society organisations.
  4. Beer affordability in South Africa from 2001 to 2024: There is currently a gap in the literature on how successful excise tax increases have been in decreasing the affordability of beer. REEP will investigate to what extent the current government strategy is succeeding in lowering the affordability of beer.
  5. Excise tax pass-through in the South African beer industry form 2001 to 2024: Building on Russell and Van Walbeek's 2016 study, this research will provide updated estimates of how excise tax changes translate into retail price changes in the South African beer market. The analysis will extend the original timeframe through 2024, offering an update on how the market is responding to excise taxes.

For any further questions about this partnership, please contact Dr Nicole Vellios at Nicole.vellios@uct.ac.za.