Smoking U-turn sparks court bid

APPLICATION: TOBACCO BODY CHALLENGES REGULATIONS

There must have been a basis for the president to state ‘sale of cigarettes will be permitted’.

After weeks of to-ing and fro-ing, the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) yesterday approached the High Court in Pretoria, with an urgent application to lift the ban on cigarette sales.

The association also wants access to the minutes from the meetings at which the National Command Council decided on the lockdown regulations and, specifically, on the issue of cigarettes and tobacco product sales.

FITA’s court action comes after the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs,

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, at the eleventh hour last week reneged on an earlier announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa that the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products would be allowed when the country moved from a level five to a level four lockdown.

FITA’s chairperson, Sinenhlanhla Mnguni, in his founding affidavit, labelled the aboutturn “inexplicable”.

“There must clearly have been a basis for the president to clearly and unequivocally state ‘the sale of cigarettes will be permitted’. It is doubtful the president would have given that undertaking without proper consultation,” he said.

Mnguni said the regulations published at the start of the lockdown did not ban the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products.

“Despite this, several ministers, including [Dlamini-Zuma], or their spokespersons have stated that the sale of cigarettes was prohibited,” Mnguni said.

“The regrettable consequence of this is that these ministerial comments have been incorrectly elevated to the status of the governing law.”

Mnguni charged that “no rational basis has been provided by [Dlamini-Zuma] to demonstrate a link between the sale of tobacco products and steps being taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“I submit that there is no basis to contend that the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products is related to combating Covid-19,” he said. “Despite the fact that many jurisdictions have imposed lockdowns, none appear to have imposed a prohibition on the sale of cigarettes.”

He contended that the ban violated members of the association’s rights to practise their trade.

No basis to contend sale of tobacco is related to combating Covid-19