{"id":331807,"date":"2019-07-29T09:21:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T07:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=331807"},"modified":"2019-07-29T09:21:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T07:21:21","slug":"what-to-expect-from-south-africas-new-smoking-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/331807\/what-to-expect-from-south-africas-new-smoking-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect from South Africa&#8217;s new smoking laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tobacco lobby groups have warned that South Africa&#8217;s proposed tobacco law changes could lead to job losses, while little has been done to stem the flow of illegal cigarettes.<\/p>\n<p>The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Draft Bill &#8211; which has been officially <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.afro.who.int\/news\/who-supports-south-africas-draft-bill-control-tobacco-products-and-electronic-delivery-systems\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sanctioned <\/a><\/strong>by the World Health Organisation (WHO) &#8211; aims to ban smoking in all public spaces, remove branding from cigarettes packs and control electronic cigarettes.<\/p>\n<p>The proposals, first mooted in 2015, have garnered significant public interest as they <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pmg.org.za\/bill\/787\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">propose<\/a> <\/strong>a number of strict new smoking laws, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A zero-tolerance policy on in-door smoking in public places (including the removal of designated smoking areas in restaurants);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A ban on outdoor smoking in public places;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>When smoking outside, smokers must be at least 10 metres away from public entrances;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The removal of all signage on cigarette packaging aside from the brand name and warning stickers;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Cigarettes may no longer be publicly displayed by retailers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While the WHO and other civil society groups have praised the new laws for being progressive and in line with best practice, tobacco companies have complained that there are a number of other concerns that the government should address first.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As the sale of illegal tobacco spirals out of control in SA, authorities continue to insist on further restricting the legal industry that complies with current tobacco regulations,&#8221; said Bongani Mshibe, JTI\u2019s corporate affairs and communications director for South, East &amp; Central Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Rather, they should focus their efforts on enforcing the existing and already sufficient regulations, working with the tobacco sector as a whole to combat illegal trade, and concentrate on introducing \u2019youth-centred\u2019 tobacco prevention programmes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It seems South Africans agree with this view. The question is whether anyone is listening to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/322063\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-south-africas-weed-laws-and-whats-coming-next\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Everything you need to know about South Africa\u2019s weed laws \u2013 and what\u2019s coming next<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The  proposed changes have been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":230075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-331807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331807"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331837,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331807\/revisions\/331837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}