Record-breaking drive against smoking

AT LAST count, André van Zijl has plastered about 80 000 no-smoking posters around the country as he aims to reach his goal of a million posters.

Van Zijl said this would be his 48th world record. The 65-yearold from Knysna continues to make headlines with his wacky world record attempts, some of which include playing chess non-stop for 150 hours, eating 600g of biltong in 35 minutes and talking on a telephone non-stop for 55 hours.

He said he intends to achieve a world record every year of his life.

Van Zijl said the Guinness World Records does not recognise some of them because they may have been deemed “boring”.

Now he has taken to his bicycle, with a bag of posters and a snake, cycling across the city to put up posters encouraging people to quit the unhealthy habit.

Yesterday, he plastered posters at the V&A Waterfront, then made his way to the BoKaap and the rest of the CBD. He plans to put up 5 000 posters in the city.

“I’ve put up 80 000 of them. I started in Pretoria three weeks ago, and have been to Bloemfontein and Kimberley. In three months, I will have 1 million across the country,” he said.

Van Zijl has been living with HIV for the past 34 years and said being around smokers is the last thing anyone with an immune deficiency needs.

“Smoking can lead to lung disease. My eyes burn when people smoke near me. People just won’t obey the law.”

The posters read: “Tobacco Products Control Act 1993. By law, this area is declared as a Non-Smoking area. Offenders will be fined and prosecuted. I, André Van Zijl, beseech and implore you to be kind and considerate. Please no smoking near babies and children. Thank you for being kind”.

“The smokers tear them off, so I put them up at night,” he added.

His passion for the cause, he said, has also led him to taking cigarettes out of smokers’ hands and extinguishing them. “The law is not doing anything.”