Presenting to parliament on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, SASTA said that, while it supports the public health goals of the tobacco bill, the proposed changes put thousands of livelihoods at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill contains many proposed changes to South Africa’s smoking laws, including the banning of smoking in public spaces, the banning of advertising at point of sale, standardising packaging, and introducing regulations for the vaping and e-cigarette industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SASTA said that the main proposals it outright rejects relate to the proposed ban on the sale of single or loose cigarettes, as well as other restrictions on sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“For informal traders, tobacco products \u2014 especially single sticks \u2014 serve as daily income generators, providing economic stability in high-unemployment communities,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The association included subtle threats that if the government did not change course on its plans, it could face social unrest and other demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said its 100,000-plus members are “organised, mobilised, and capable of coordinated economic action”, including mass protest and civic disruption across multiple provinces<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It added that they can also submit to international economic watchdogs, UN bodies, and regional blocs and boycott and engage in “alternative media campaigns” to expose the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SASTA said it would “expose” the use of public health as a cover to erase township entrepreneurship.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The association argued that the proposed laws are punitive in nature and threaten law-abiding traders with fines and arrest, while allowing illicit traders to continue undeterred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By banning sales and advertising as in the current bill, the government will cut off revenue streams for thousands and effectively “criminalise poverty”, SASTA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Traders will be harassed, fined or even arrested for selling a product through which they earn a living. As a result, more sellers and consumers will be pushed to the illicit market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “South Africa is already facing a severe crisis of illicit cigarette trade, worsened since the COVID-19 lockdown period. Recent research and industry data indicate that illicit products have captured up to 65\u201370% of the national market,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These products do not comply with SARS tax regulations, are sold below legal pricing thresholds, and dominate retail distribution through informal and criminal networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research has shown that South Africa is losing upwards of R27 billion to the fiscus through illicit sales, and the government now risks exacerbating this through the proposed tobacco bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SASTA said that the security cluster in government and law enforcement agencies are fully aware of the damage being done but have failed to clamp down on illicit trade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, they now want to punish law-abiding traders and allow the criminal networks to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It urged the portfolio committee on health to review the tobacco bill and allow the sale of cigarette singles, while phasing in other changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also wants informal trader bodies to be included in the implementation and oversight bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Tobacco Control Bill, as currently drafted, risks undermining not just informal livelihoods but South Africa\u2019s broader socio-economic stability,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “By failing to address the real threat of illicit trade, it instead criminalises informal workers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An association representing 100,000 informal traders in South Africa says its members are ready and capable of mass protest and civic disruption if government ignores their inputs on new proposed smoking laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":831952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[23154,18247],"class_list":["post-831922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-south-african-spaza-and-tuck-shop-association","tag-tobacco-bill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831922","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=831922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832004,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831922\/revisions\/832004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Punishing law-abiding traders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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