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The government agreed to provide the Independent Fair Trade Tobacco Association with reasons to keep the ban on sales of cigarettes and tobacco products at level 4 of the shutdown.
The association, whose members include cigarette makers Carnilinx and Gold Leaf Tobacco, has launched an urgent court order for the government to lift the ban on sales of cigarettes and tobacco products during the shutdown and for these products to be considered essential goods.
The association also sought the minutes of the meetings in which the government made decisions related to the sale of cigarettes, this is related to part A of its request, which was to be heard in court on Tuesday, May 12.
But in a statement released Monday night, FITA said there would no longer be a need to discuss Part A of the request, as “a substantial part of the aid” requested has been provided.
Referring to the affidavit of response deposed by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, last week, FITA said the government had agreed to provide the “record of the decision and the reasons for the enactment of the regulation 27 of the level 4 regulations as soon as possible. ” reasonably possible. “
The ban on sales of cigarettes and tobacco products was instituted at the beginning of the close on March 26. On April 23, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the ban would be lifted as the country moved to level four of the blockade. But just a few days later, Dlamini-Zuma said the ban would continue in the interest of health. The minister noted that the government had received more than 2,000 submissions from the public objecting to the sale of cigarettes.
Given the government’s change of direction, FITA then proceeded with its judicial offer, questioning the government’s intention behind the ban, so it sought access to meeting minutes and documents that informed the decision to renew the ban.
In the reply affidavit, the minister said there was “nothing sinister” behind the government’s decision to continue to apply the ban. He indicated that the decision to enact the ban regulation was made “after careful consideration,” not only based on submissions received from the public but also on “relevant medical literature.”
“It is also a decision approved by the NCCC [National Coronavirus Command Council] and the Cabinet, before the regulations were enacted, “said Dlamini-Zuma.
“There is nothing sinister about a change of position after a consultation process: in fact, the very nature of the consultation is that change can result,” he said.
FITA said it would now focus on the relief requested in Part B of our application: a court statement that the sale of tobacco and cigarette products is legal under the closing regulations. The date of this hearing has not yet been determined.
The FITA court case is unrelated to the legal action proposed by SA’s largest cigarette maker, British American Tobacco South Africa, which was withdrawn last week.
