A top cop has questioned the power the liquor industry wields in the wake of the deadly tavern shootings.

KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi says if he had his way, he would have alcohol banned in townships and rural areas. He identified alcohol as a major contributor to crime.

Since Saturday there have been four deadly shootings at taverns in the country in which a total of 23 people has been killed. Three were in Gauteng and the fourth in KZN. The deadliest was at a Soweto establishment where five gunmen massacred 16 people and injured several others.

These attacks came just weeks after 21 teenagers died at a tavern in the Eastern Cape.