While many places stock up on alcohol ahead of the Christmas period, a city council in South Africa is doing the opposite - and pouring away thousands of litres of alcohol.

South African news website News24 posted a video on Thursday of law enforcement officers in Cape Town carrying out their annual task of disposing of thousands of cans and bottles of liquor confiscated over the past 12 months - a total of 16,000 this year.

In addition to having their alcohol seized, people who drink at the city's beaches, swimming pools and other public spaces face fines of 500 rand ($36, £28). They then have three months to pick up their drink from a storage depot, but many do not.

Almost 4,000 bottles were seized on New Year’s Day alone, according to Cape Town Councilor JP Smith.

He added that while the council would prefer to sell the alcohol and invest the proceeds in the city, a number of obstacles had prevented this so far - including that the city could be accused of "profiteering" from confiscating alcohol, and that the council doesn't have an alcohol license.

The City of Cape Town has also posted photos on Twitter of the exercise: