{"id":411305,"date":"2020-06-26T16:00:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=411305"},"modified":"2020-06-26T16:00:41","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T14:00:41","slug":"cigarette-sales-stay-banned-high-court-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/411305\/cigarette-sales-stay-banned-high-court-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Cigarette sales stay banned: High Court ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gauteng High Court has dismissed the case brought by fair trade association Fita to try and lift the ban on the sale of cigarettes in the country.<\/p>\n

The group confirmed<\/a> the ruling on Friday (26 June), adding that it would issue a public statement on the matter at a later time.<\/p>\n

Fita had argued that the ban on the sale of cigarettes was detrimental to both industry and individuals, and that it was premised on irrational reasoning.<\/p>\n

Government, meanwhile, argued that the ban was in place to protect the health of South African citizens and would encourage addicts to quit.<\/p>\n

While government argued that smoking could lead to an increase in coronavirus cases and even death, Fita said that this is not an issue that is limited to cigarettes.<\/p>\n

According to the courts, however, Fita had failed to convince the judges of its case.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the court said<\/a> that Fita’s argument that tobacco products be considered ‘necessary’ due to the negative effects the ban was having on those dependent on the substance, was without merit.<\/p>\n

The court also noted that Fita bringing the case ignored the context in which the ban was put in place – an unprecedented global pandemic, which required swift response from government.<\/p>\n

The case was dismissed with costs.<\/p>\n

Another battle looms<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the Fita case failing to get the ban overturned, attention now falls to another court case being brought by British American Tobacco against the ban.<\/p>\n

The difference in the BAT case is that the group is challenging the constitutionality of the ban, rather than the rationality.<\/p>\n

In this case, BAT is arguing that the ban is violating the business’ right to trade, and is having a devastating impact on supply chains and thousands of people employed in the industry.<\/p>\n

The case was due to be heard on 30 June, but the company says it has received communication that government has delayed the hearing until August.<\/p>\n

The nationwide tobacco sales ban has been in place since the country went into lockdown in March.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: South Africa\u2019s cigarette sales ban case is \u2018inexplicably\u2019 being pushed back to August: British American Tobacco<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gauteng High Court has dismissed the case brought by fair trade association Fita to try and lift the ban on the sale of cigarettes in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":291754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-411305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411305","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=411305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411307,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411305\/revisions\/411307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}