British American Tobacco (BAT) SA, the local division of the world’s second-largest cigarette producer, has joined an array of groups and companies trying to overturn the continued prohibition of the sale of tobacco products during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown, saying that the government has snubbed every effort to engage, writes MedicalBrief.
According to Business Day, the company said it would be supported in the court action by Japan Tobacco International, as well as groups and organisations representing the tobacco value chain across the country, including consumers, tobacco farmers and retailers.
BAT SA said it had made every effort to constructively engage with the government since the ban came into force, including making detailed submissions, along with other interested parties, to various ministers, as well as directly to the presidency.
“To date, no formal response has been received from the government, and BAT SA has also not been included in any of the government’s consultation processes so far,” the company said.
“BAT SA has long argued that the banning of a legal product will have dire consequences, driving millions of smokers to the illicit market, robbing the government of much-needed excise tax contributions, undercutting tobacco control regulations, encouraging criminal behaviour and threatening thousands of jobs.”
The Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (Fita), a lobby group representing small manufacturers in Southern Africa, which has approached the courts in a bid to have the government’s decision to ban tobacco products reviewed and set aside, has taken a swipe at Co-Operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s submission and government’s “record of decision” on the matter in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria).
The submission to the court was 3,674 pages long and contained the public submissions that the government said partly informed its decision to keep the ban in place. According to Business Day, Fita said that of the 1,535 public submissions it counted, 47.2% had nothing to do with issues about cigarettes, 23.3% were in favour of the ban being lifted and 29.6% wanted the ban to remain in place.
Also part of the government’s submission were journal articles about the effect of the COVID-19 virus on smokers; World Health Organisation reports on the risk of smoking, which were compiled before the breakout of the virus; health surveys; reports about the health risks of smoking; and a global tuberculosis report.
The High Court is expected to hear the court application on 9 June.
A cardiologist and anti-smoking researcher has come out against the ban, saying there is no evidence that smoking would increase the transmission of the coronavirus. Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos said in an interview that he did not understand why South Africa had taken the decision to ban the sale of cigarettes, according to TimesLIVE.
He said the reason most other countries had not done this in response to the pandemic was very simple. “There is zero evidence that smoking will propagate or is in some way increasing the transmission of coronavirus.” He added: “Banning smoking is not a way for people to quit, it’s a way to create an explosion of the black market.”
Farsalinos said quitting smoking would not necessarily be beneficial to a person who soon afterwards became infected with COVID-19. “They are in reality smokers. It takes years for quitters to reverse the damage.”
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