The department of health is pushing forward on a draft bill in an effort to get more stringent anti-smoking laws passed.<\/p>\n
The department’s Lynn Moeng told EWN<\/a> <\/strong>that the Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill is currently in the pipeline, and that government is working as ‘fast as it can’ to have it processed.<\/p>\n “We are now finalising the process and once we have done that before it even gets to Cabinet, it needs to be approved by a few technical committees,” she said.<\/p>\n “We are in the process where we’ll now be able to submit to the various committees.”<\/p>\n Approved by president Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s cabinet in 2018, the bill aims to comprehensively prohibit smoking in public places.<\/p>\n This includes<\/p>\n The bill also aims to regulate the use, marketing and sales of e-cigarettes or vapes in South Africa, with these products currently operating in a legislative vacuum.<\/p>\n Tobacco companies have already slammed<\/a> <\/strong>the proposed changes, citing a poor public consultation process and the damage the bill will do to the industry.<\/p>\n South Africa Tobacco Transformation Alliance (SATTA) chairman Ntando Shadrack Sibisi said that more than 21,000 comments had been received when the Tobacco Bill was first published for public comment \u2013 and yet the latest version of the bill remained unchanged.<\/p>\n \u201cIs the department honestly saying that none of the 21,000 comments made in 2018 were of significance or meaning?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOr did the department not deem those comments to have merit? If so, why bother with this consultation process? It feels like a mere box-ticking exercise, and we believe that makes this process a sham.\u201d<\/p>\n Ban<\/strong><\/p>\n Sibisi said it was also dangerous and reckless to consider imposing the sort of restrictions proposed in the bill at a time when the entire legal tobacco industry is currently in the ‘intensive care unit’, with massive losses in income, revenue and jobs.<\/p>\n Retail group Spar has said that the ban on cigarettes during South Africa\u2019s hard Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 has had a long-term impact on sales.<\/p>\n\n