The SA tobacco-free youth forum is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa and members of parliament to urgently pass the Tobacco Control Bill of 2018 into law.

The forum made the call in the statement on Monday through Tosaca Media group, saying that the bill is long overdue.

“It must be presented to the cabinet and then to parliament,” the statement reads, adding that passing and implementing the bill will effectively change the lives of smokers and non-smokers alike.

According to the forum, the government has not passed the bill in a decade.

“The bill has been in the pipeline since 2012 but it has still not been passed to date. This lack of action has cost lives.”

The forum says it is estimated that each year in South Africa as many as 44 000 people die from tobacco-related diseases, and that passing the bill would help ease the pressure on the country’s health system, which is important for the execution of the national health insurance (NHI).

The bill focuses on ‘100% smoke-free indoor public areas, plain packaging and pictorial health warnings,’ among others.

The forum also announced that it was on a three-month campaign, from September to November, ‘to support the passing of the bill through its current legislative process’.

It urges South Africans to make their voices heard by signing a petition calling on the policymakers to prioritise the passing of the bill.

The forum says it is collecting signatures of community members that support the bill, and will soon take to the streets to collect the signatures of the youth.