Nkosazana comes out smoking
‘Aim is not to overwhelm resources’
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma came out guns blazing yesterday in her legal attempt to keep cigarettes out of public reach during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The co-operative governance minister and President Cyril Ramaphosa are opposing a lawsuit brought by British American Tobacco SA (Batsa) and nine other litigants – including farmers‚ consumers and processors – over the tobacco sales ban.
During the second day of the hearing before a full bench of three Western Cape High Court judges‚ Dlamini-Zuma revealed a list of experts and medical literature upon which she based her decision.
Her counsel‚ Karrisha Pillay‚ spent the morning explaining the rationale behind the minister’s decision and strove to poke holes in her opponents’ evidence. Among other things‚ Pillay said that‚ unlike Batsa‚ Dlamini-Zuma relied on peer-reviewed literature.
“There is no question of my client’s experts’ evidence being far-fetched‚” said Pillay.
In court papers‚ DlaminiZuma said: “The overarching reasons for the decision to continue prohibiting the sale of tobacco products for domestic consumption in alert level 3 are to protect human life and health and to reduce the potential strain on the healthcare system‚ particularly given the predicted steep rise in the rate of infections by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) after the lifting of the level 4 restrictions.”
Pillay said the minister had since been proven correct in her anticipation of a steep rise in infections.
Emphasising the possible strain smokers could pose on the health-care system‚ Pillay asked the court to remember that the constitution says noone may be refused emergency treatment and that the state has limited resources.
Pillay said ventilators – among other apparatus required for Covid-19 treatment – fall under emergency services.
Dlamini-Zuma acknowledged that the cigarette sales ban is “a cautious approach”‚ but it was aimed at ensuring state resources are not overwhelmed.
In her voluminous court papers‚ Dlamini-Zuma said she relied on the expertise of‚ among others‚ professor Leslie London‚ head of public health medicine at the University of Cape Town; professor Kennedy Nyamande‚ head of pulmonology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; and the SA Medical Research Council’s Dr Catherine Egbe.
She admitted that scientific knowledge of Covid-19 is still evolving and the link between tobacco products and the pandemic is yet to be established.
“However‚ the preponderance of the evidence from the studies that have been done so far is that the use of tobacco products may not increase the risk of transmission of Covid19 but does increase the risk of developing a more severe form of the disease‚” the minister’s court documents read.