{"id":426206,"date":"2020-08-17T16:58:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T14:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=426206"},"modified":"2020-08-17T16:58:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T14:58:00","slug":"dlamini-zuma-on-south-africas-new-cigarette-and-alcohol-sales-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/426206\/dlamini-zuma-on-south-africas-new-cigarette-and-alcohol-sales-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Dlamini-Zuma on South Africa&#8217;s new cigarette and alcohol sales rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says there will be no limitations on the sale of tobacco products in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The sale of tobacco products, including cigarettes, has been prohibited since the country first introduced a lockdown on 27 March, but will again be available from 00h01 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>In a media briefing on Monday (17 August), Dlamini-Zuma said that there will be no &#8216;particular&#8217; restrictions unlike those which are applied to alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>She said that the reason tobacco was banned was because of the dangers of Covid-19 as a respiratory disease.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was evidence coming from other countries showing that some smokers tend to have a more serious disease which means we will need more ICU beds and maybe more ventilators,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On the other hand, the results of stopping smoking do show pretty quickly. Your respiratory tract does improve quickly and just your general well-being improves &#8211; that&#8217;s why it was prohibited temporarily.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dlamini-Zuma said that now that there are beds and ventilators available, the sale of tobacco products is now allowed.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WHVo2UpzzFQ\" width=\"640\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alcohol rules<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Under South Africa&#8217;s level 2 lockdown restrictions, the sale of liquor by licensed premises for off-consumption is permitted from 09h00 to 17h00, from Mondays to Thursdays.<\/p>\n<p>A licensed premises may also sell for on-site consumption, subject to strict adherence to the curfew.<\/p>\n<p>Dlamini-Zuma explained that alcohol is being treated differently to cigarettes because of the clear impact it had on the country&#8217;s health sector.<\/p>\n<p>She said that there was clear evidence during the lockdown that the prohibition of alcohol sales led to a decrease in car accidents and a decrease and trauma patients.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To then just open completely (creates) a risk of the surge coming back and overwhelming the health service. That&#8217;s why it was agreed that we start slowly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scapegoat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dlamini-Zuma said that some South Africans were giving her &#8216;too much credit&#8217; for her role in maintaining the ban on tobacco products for nearly five months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are giving me too much credit that I do not deserve. I do not run government- I am part of a collective in government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The way people have been putting it is that I\u00a0 tell the whole of cabinet that we are going to limit the sale of tobacco.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She said that this also shortchanging the president and the government&#8217;s team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, I am the one who signs these regulations because somebody has to. Someone must take that responsibility and I do. But to pretend that it&#8217;s just my decisions, I think it is disingenuous to say that. It think some people find it easier to find a scapegoat. It is part of life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/426092\/here-are-the-official-level-2-lockdown-rules-for-south-africa-including-the-new-limits-on-social-visits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Here are the official level 2 lockdown rules for South Africa \u2013 including the new limits on social visits<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says there will be no limitations on the sale of tobacco products in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":388523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-426206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426206","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=426206"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426256,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426206\/revisions\/426256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}