{"id":870154,"date":"2026-08-13T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870154"},"modified":"2026-08-13T12:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:56:13","slug":"strict-new-smoking-laws-for-south-africa-step-closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/870154\/strict-new-smoking-laws-for-south-africa-step-closer\/","title":{"rendered":"Strict new smoking laws for South Africa step closer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Portfolio Committee on Health has begun clause-by-clause deliberations on South Africa&#8217;s new smoking laws, bringing the years-long, oft-delayed legislation closer to reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, the committee began processing the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill after it voted in favour of the desirability of laws in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The desirability vote was a key step in advancing the laws, bringing the committee on board and in line to get the bill to the National Assembly and ultimately the president&#8217;s desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The current step in the process is the clause-by-clause deliberations, where MPs will consider amendments, including those that address various concerns raised about the laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From there, the committee will finalise its report and send it to the National Assembly for further debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Broadly, the bill seeks to tighten regulations on smoking and vaping in South Africa by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Banning indoor smoking and vaping in public spaces;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enforcing plain packaging with graphic health warnings;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Removing all retail product displays;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prohibiting advertising, sponsorships, and promotion of tobacco and e-cigarette products;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Restricting sales through vending machines, including at certain private spaces where children or non-smokers are present;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Treating vaping products the same as traditional cigarettes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Violations of the law will carry penalties such as fines and lengthy jail terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill, which has been in process for several years, concluded its last round of public consultations at the end of 2025, where issues were flagged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the key points of concern was the differentiation between combustible cigarettes and non-combustible nicotine products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill, in its current form, treats combustible and non-combustible products through the same regulatory approach. This is set to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apropos, committee chair Faith Muthambi announced that lawmakers have already formally recognised the distinction between combustible and non-combustible products, which she said was a &#8220;key milestone&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another important definition was the critical issue of illicit trade. Stakeholders had argued that stricter and tighter smoking laws would push consumers to the black market, boosting illicit trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This had already been experienced in the sector after the COVID-19 lockdowns banned the sale of cigarettes, opening the way for the illicit market to now dominate trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The committee accepts that illicit tobacco products seriously undermine tobacco control measures and represent a heightened public health risk to all citizens,&#8221; Muthambi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;To address this, most committee members highlighted that the ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products is crucial.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This ratification will provide the necessary regulatory framework to effectively combat illicit activities while ensuring the Bill remains fully aligned with the South African Constitution, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Importantly, the committee chair said that there was &#8220;broad alignment among all political parties represented in the committee&#8221; toward the laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This, she said, was a positive indication that the processing of the laws would continue constructively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The clause-by-clause deliberations on South Africa&#8217;s new smoking laws has begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":831232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2087856953561129208","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2174890829997983","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17886071832613014","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1916],"class_list":["post-870154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-parliament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870154","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=870154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870159,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870154\/revisions\/870159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}