NDZ swallows bitter tobacco pill

Even by the standards of the strange ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic – and the government reaction to it – has unfurled in South Africa, yesterday’s appearance by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had its moments of the bizarre.

Firstly, there was no indication in the Government Gazette detailing regulations for Level 2 of lockdown, of what was to become of cigarettes.

President Cyril Ramaphosa told the nation on Saturday tobacco products would be permitted to be sold from midnight last night. And even in her turgid reciting of Level 2 restrictions, the minister in charge of lockdown failed to mention cigarettes until right at the end, and then only in a throwaway remark, to the effect that, now that you could smoke again (nothing about the sales of cigarettes), you shouldn’t share with others.

After fighting tooth and nail for almost five months to keep the ban on sale of tobacco products, Dlamini-Zuma collapsed with barely a whimper – but then told South Africans that booze really needed to be controlled because when we drink, apparently, we also get violent and crash our cars.

The meek capitulation on tobacco came just days after her legal team was filing angry affidavits in court cases. The ban had little scientific basis in terms of combating the spread of the virus or of improving Covid-19 health outcomes after infection. And its major achievement seems to have been spawning a vast underground market, which will undoubtedly continue even under eased lockdown.

Yet, all this cost the country billions of rands in lost tax revenue through lost profits by cigarette makers and lost excise duties. The same is true of the alcohol industry, where hundreds of thousands of people were affected by the bans and many lost their jobs. It begs the question: what was it all about, really?

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