Strict new smoking laws for South Africa are coming
After years of delays, amendments, lapses, and revivals, South Africa is finally moving closer to implementing new smoking laws.
The Portfolio Committee on Health has voted in favour of the desirability of the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill.
Broadly, the bill seeks to tighten regulations on smoking and vaping in South Africa by:
- Banning indoor smoking and vaping in public spaces;
- Enforcing plain packaging with graphic health warnings;
- Removing all retail product displays;
- Prohibiting advertising, sponsorships, and promotion of tobacco and e-cigarette products;
- Restricting sales through vending machines, including at certain private spaces where children or non-smokers are present;
- Treating vaping products the same as traditional cigarettes.
Violations of the law will carry penalties such as fines and lengthy jail terms.
However, the implementation of the proposed laws is still some way off, with the committee only greenlighting the next phase of the lawmaking process.
This follows an extensive public consultation process, which was reissued upon the formation of the seventh administration following the 2024 National Elections.
The bill, which has been in process for several years, concluded its last round of public consultations at the end of 2025.
The committee conducted hearings in 27 municipalities across all nine provinces, with almost 7,900 people attending, 1,113 oral submissions, and about 40,000 written submissions.
Members of the committee voted in support of the bill, but made it clear that this support was contingent on significant amendments being made before it is eventually presented to the National Assembly.
These would be to address various points of concern raised during the public consultation process, such as differentiating between combustible cigarettes and non-combustible nicotine products.
The bill, in its current form, treats combustible and non-combustible products through the same regulatory approach.
“It has become unmistakable, through the scientific submission and through our own deliberations as a committee, that not all tobacco and nicotine products carry the same risk,” the committee said.
The Department of Health, in its March 2026 responses to public comments, has also officially accepted differentiation as a guiding principle.
While the motion of desirability is an important step forward, the bill will still take some time to be processed before becoming law.
It will now move to clause-by-clause deliberations where MPs will consider amendments, including those that address the concerns raised.
From here, the committee will finalise its report and send it to the National Assembly for further debate.
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