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The Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) says a court ruling that the five-month cigarette ban during the first days of South Africa’s shutdown was unconstitutional – too little, too late.
In a statement Monday, the association took note and welcomed Friday’s ruling in plenary session of the Western Cape Superior Court, which held that regulation 45 of the level 3 lockdown regulations did not stand up to constitutional scrutiny.
“The court further considered that Regulation 45 was neither necessary nor that it furthered the objectives set out in section 27 (2) of the Disaster Management Act,” said FITA President Sinenhlanhla Mnguni.
“Of course, this was one of the arguments put forward by FITA in its challenge to the ban on the sale of cigarettes and tobacco-related products, which the entire North Gauteng Superior Court court erred as necessary,” Mnguni said. .
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He went on to say: “To the extent that the Western Cape Superior Court decision is welcomed by everyone in the industry, it is quite regrettable that industry players had no alternative but to go to court as a government, in a constitutional democracy. , blatantly refused to engage with the industry as a whole before and during the ban on the sale of cigarettes and tobacco-related products, which lasted about five months in total. “
FITA argued that the ban resulted in the exponential growth of the illicit cigarette trade, “with many criminal syndicates that were involved in other criminal activities being attracted to this practice as a result of the apparent relative ease of smuggling cigarettes through our porous borders ”.
Mnguni said the illicit tobacco trade has become increasingly lucrative and dangerous.
“On many occasions we had warned the government that prolonging the irrational ban on cigarettes would only serve to encourage these criminal elements who have now clearly increased their resources and networks,” he said.
“This, of course, has a significant impact on legitimate tobacco industry players and those they employ throughout the value chain, as it is virtually impossible to compete with these unions that are flooding the South African market with their smuggling. “.
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