Fita arguing against government’s ‘obsession’ with cigarettes
Fita have argued in court that for smokers tobacco products are as much a basic good as food or cleaning products are for everyone else.
The Fair-trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) says government is ‘obsessed’ with alcohol and cigarettes.
“What we find here is an obsession with alcohol and cigarettes. We know that alcohol has now been permitted and we submit, on the evidence, that it is far more harmful to health services,” advocate Arnold Subel SC – for FITA – told the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday morning.
This as the association’s highly anticipated challenge to the ban on cigarette and tobacco sales finally got underway.
Last month, FITA launched an urgent application challenging government’s controversial ban on tobacco sales during the national lockdown. The association has already achieved partial success with the first part of the application, in which they wanted the minutes from the meetings at which the National Command Council decided on the lockdown regulations and, specifically, the tobacco sales ban.
Government refused to provide the minutes but agreed to furnish FITA and the court with a record of decision, which it did last week.
It is the second part of the application, in which FITA wants an order declaring the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products is lawful, that is now before the court.
“Nobody is suggesting tobacco isn’t harmful but there’s legislation that deals with tobacco … The legislature has got legislation in place to regulate and control the smoking of tobacco products,” Subel said on Wednesday.
“When we look at the Tobacco Control Act, there’s got to be very careful supervision and control of tobacco products … What is flourishing now is uncontrolled, harmful and probably more addictive”.
He argued that there had been “steely determination” on the part of government to keep the ban in place.
“And for what purpose? To alleviate the strain on health services. But then we have to find that there’s a rational link between the two,” he went on.
Subel maintained that tobacco products constituted basic goods for smokers, “like food and cleaning products”.
He said Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had determined that “if you stop people smoking, they’ll get over it”.
“But it’s a very serious addiction … You can’t simply switch off,” he said.
Subel said that with each passing day, there was “enormous harm” being done to the economy and to people’s well-being.
“And the poorest of the poor are the ones suffering the worst because they’re having to pay black market prices for banned substances,” he said.
Government had previously said the implementation of the sales prohibition seeks to free up critical resources needed to respond to cases of Covid-19, which would otherwise be occupied by smokers.
Meanwhile, the British American Tobacco South Africa also filed a legal application against the government over the ban on cigarette sales at the Cape Town High Court last week, which gave the government time until Friday afternoon, 5 June to respond to the legal challenge on the ban.
Fita says one of the pieces of research relied on in government’s record of decision was only published in mid May and so couldn’t have been considered when the #CigaretteBan was first decided on.
— Bernadette Wicks (Wolhuter) (@bern_wicks) June 10, 2020
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