[ad_1]
Under the direction of SAMKELO MTSHALI 
6h ago
Durban: As disputes over the government’s makeover of cigarette sales continue, leaving a widely spread narrative of a power dispute between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Cooperative Governance Minister Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma , a political analyst believes that the government’s handling of the problem was “a colossal failure.”
Ramaphosa announced on April 23 that the country would move to Level 4 closure from May, which would see some relaxed restrictions and a million people would return to work. The President also announced that the sale of cigarettes would be allowed at Level 4, which would cheer up and help millions of smokers who had been banned from buying tobacco products during the shutdown.
A week later, outlining the level 4 blockade regulations, Dlamini Zuma lifted the country’s smokers into arms after announcing that the government had chosen to reverse its decision and that cigarette sales would remain in place.
The decision has seen the development of a narrative that Dlamini Zuma mined Ramaphosa.
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said the narrative of a power struggle had unfortunately become powerful due to government mismanagement of the situation. He said that the biggest problem in making a difference in cigarette sales was that the government had failed in the decision to ban, unseat, before again banning the sale of cigarettes during the shutdown.
He said the lack of a prompt explanation to the public as to why he had chosen to ban cigarettes after Ramaphosa announced that cigarette sales were not prohibited had left fertile ground for people to have their own narratives on the situation.
“On the flip flop in an inexplicable way (the government) was unable to give an explanation and the only explanation was simply that the decision was made collectively. There was never a real explanation that one can tell us why they moved from the starting position. by Ramaphosa to the decision to ban cigarettes.
“By not explaining properly, the government made the story available to speculate on the balance of power between the president and Dlamini Zuma. The government did a poor job here of not explaining its decision adequately and not even managing the consequences properly, leaving all contagion to kill himself and now the story has been redrawn in the narrative of a power battle between President Ramaphosa and Dlamini Zuma, “said Mathekga.
This occurs when the Independent Fair Trade Tobacco Association is bringing the government to court in an attempt to reverse the sales ban, while British American Tobacco SA (BATSA) has threatened legal action against the government and also announced that they were seeking urgent clarity on the decision-making process that led the government to impose an indefinite ban on the legal sale of tobacco products.
Political Bureau
[ad_2]
