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The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma Nkosazana, received permission to appeal the Western Cape High Court ruling on the ban on the sale of tobacco.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma received permission to appeal the Western Cape High Court ruling that said her decision to ban tobacco sales for five months during the harsh lockdown was unnecessary and unconstitutional. , The Mail & Guardian reported Monday.
The ban was implemented to curb the spread of Covid-19 and thus reduce the occupancy of intensive care unit (ICU) beds by smokers. The government then argued that smoking increased the risk of contracting Covid-19 in a more serious way.
Although the ban was lifted months ago, it seems that the legal dispute surrounding it cannot be ended.
Represented by Dlamini-Zuma and President Cyril Ramaphosa and the National Coronavirus Command Council, he requested permission to appeal the ruling in January despite the fact that the issue of the sales ban was no longer relevant at that stage and the government was also not seeking reintroduce the ban on sales. .
The respective arguments of the Council and British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) in favor and against the appeal were heard virtually in mid-February.
The Western Cape Superior Court ruling was possibly humiliating for Dlamini-Zuma, who had won a victory over an earlier challenge to the ban brought by the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (Fita).
Fin24 previously reported that although the government’s legal challenge was not motivated by any plan to reintroduce a cigarette ban, there were “certain constitutional issues” raised in the BATSA ruling that needed to be addressed and clarified by a higher court.
The government believed that there was a reasonable prospect that if the appeal were allowed, the Supreme Court of Appeals would clarify the conflicts between certain aspects of the Fita case that was dismissed by the Pretoria High Court and the BATSA case that was confirmed by the Court. Western Cape Superior Court.
Tobacco giant BATSA, which took COGTA to court in May and ultimately won a victory in December, said it will release a statement Tuesday to respond to the latest development.
