It is not difficult to catch cigarettes

It’s that easy to buy cigarettes: a few WhatsApp messages, an order placed, an ‘Uber’ delivery and voila.

WhatsApp and Uber have made selling cigarettes easy. We wanted to test how easy it is to buy them under lockdown. Through a friend, we sent a WhatsApp to a merchant, feigning withdrawal and despair of smokers. It is a common message because there are some six million smokers in the country and, with the widespread ban on cigarette sales, they have not suddenly stopped smoking in a mass compliance act. In a very South African way, plans are being made.

“Connect me with cigarettes …” The first WhatsApp chat was fired. The answer came: “I am your man, but they are very greedy charging bras (friends) crazy prices for gwaais (cigarettes).”

We are not smokers, so please provide approximate figures. Known cigarette brands generally sell for between R350 and R600 for a carton of 10. We order a high-end brand (Marlboro), a mid-range brand (Kent), and a loose box (Courtleigh) to test availability in a delivery in one day

The seller could help with two Marlboro cards (gold and blue) and a Courtleigh package, but not Kent. We took what we could get.

The added value was incorporated into the system. An Uber driver was part of the network and would do a home delivery for R200 in cash. EFT paid for the cigarettes before delivery. My contact knew the person, so there was a relationship of trust. The delivery of Uber was a possible complement because electronic calling services caused the brakes to be blocked by the strict closure of the prison in South Africa.

Smoking friends tell me that the price of cigarettes that are now smuggled have skyrocketed after the government moved from the Level 5 to Level 4 blockade and after President Cyril Ramaphosa changed his mind about selling cigarettes. He announced on April 23 that sales would be allowed at Level 4, but when Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma replied that a few days later, prices skyrocketed.

Smokers scalp

If you are not switching to a nameless brand cigarette and you buy it in a parking lot or garage, where networking is as easy as a silent order, you will pay for your brand loyalty.

The following WhatsApp chat solved the cost: “1 x Marlboro gold R900, 1 x Marlboro blue ice R900, 1 x Courtleigh 60 loose. Don’t forget $ 200 for the super bra (friend).” Bank details were communicated and the EFT was performed.

Prices differ, but in a normal sale Marlboro costs around R55 per box and around R500 per box. The black market price we paid was almost double. While the cigarettes were delivered by what the merchant said was an Uber, the term is often used extensively for electronic calling taxi services. The delivery was not made in the company application.

Home delivery felt safer than asking about smoking in a parking lot or garage, as SA Revenue Service Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said.

“You talk to someone who knows someone who knows someone,” said a smoker from Grassy Park at Cape Flats in Cape Town, explaining how the trade works there. “But the price is going up: it was R60, now it is R85 (for one package).”

In South Africa, illicit economies are never difficult to find, so the ban on selling cigarettes and alcohol is not difficult to break.

“We have arrested a lot of people,” police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said this week, adding that the police had attributed nearly 200,000 lockdown infractions, including fines, arrests and warnings. Many of those arrested were people who bought, sold, and transported cigarettes during the shutdown. Last week in Gauteng, two women were arrested for transporting cigarettes worth R254,000, priced at normal market prices, not on the black market, Naidoo said.

“People do not understand that it is not to punish them. Remember, these are two factors (alcohol and cigarettes) that contribute greatly to the deterioration of a person’s health,” Naidoo complained. Eight years have passed since you quit smoking and said you know how tobacco addiction feels.

Naidoo revealed that contact crime decreased between 65% and 75% according to the police analysis, which he directly attributes to the ban on the sale of alcohol. Hospital trauma units have also reported drastic drops in admission numbers.

A different state official is doing a separate set of calculations.

SARS chief Kieswetter told Parliament that initial estimates of excise duties decreased by 54.7% year-on-year and that R1.3 billion was likely lost in the treasury as a result of cigarette and alcohol bans.

“We have anecdotal evidence that the illicit sale of cigarettes and alcohol has continued during the closing period. Although the impact on income is relatively low as a percentage of total income, we raise the crime of income as our main concern, “said Kieswetter.

Yusuf Abramjee, who heads the Tax Justice Network, commented: “The high demand for illicit cigarettes has allowed criminals to increase their prices massively, often by at least 300%. Their business is booming and they are making money by giving their fist.

“A 2017 survey by the University of Cape Town found that one third of all cigarettes sold in South Africa are illegal and no tax is paid on them. We estimate that the illicit tobacco trade costs the South African fiscus R8 billion a year. “

For more, listen to our Daily Maverick’s Don’t Shoot The Messenger podcast on Unintended consequences of blocking.

According to Abramjee, this is how the illegal cigarette trade works: “There is evidence of” under the counter “sales in stores, spazas and even car park stalls. Some distributors are advertising on social media. These retail stores are being supplied by criminal networks operating under normal conditions (also). They smuggle illicit cigarettes from abroad, but 80% of illegal tobacco products are produced locally. “

The Tax Justice Network is an independent NGO that advocates against illicit economies. Abramjee is supported in his campaign by Makali Lepholisa, a former Lesotho customs commissioner, and Interpol ambassador Andy Mashaile. DM

Daily Maverick has hosted the cigarettes we buy from our attorneys. We have declared the purchase to the police.