The Free Market Foundation (FMF) has called upon legislators to review the recently tabled Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, saying it will have devastating effects on the economy and lead to unemployment.
Martin van Staden, policy fellow at the Consumer Choice Centre and head of policy at FMF, said the South African public policy agenda should be focused on the big issues that are wrecking the nation, not on nibbling away at consumer choice.
He said the neglect of electricity infrastructure had led to unprecedented levels of load-shedding and that the cholera outbreak was threatening municipal water supplies in five provinces and had already claimed more than 40 lives.
He said unemployment continued to rise, with no end in sight. Investor and consumer confidence in the economy is collapsing, in no small part thanks to the government’s foreign policy blunders.
“Rather than deal with the multitude of real crises that threaten South Africans’ lives and livelihoods, Parliament and its health portfolio committee are fine-tuning a law that seeks to ban smoking and vaping in private premises – including our own homes,” said Van Staden.
If implemented, the Bill will make it mandatory for certain indoor areas and portions of some outdoor areas to be 100% smoke-free, and among other things, it will ban cigarette vending machines, prohibit tobacco product displays at points of sale, standardising tobacco product packaging and labelling, and regulate electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems.
Van Staden said that as proposed, the Bill would prohibit owners of any property accessible to the public from allowing people to smoke, even in designated areas.
“Even where the owner is a smoker, the mere presence of a non-smoker in any ‘enclosed space’ would mean lighting up would breach the law. Property owners who employ domestic workers would be prohibited from smoking in their own homes should the bill be adopted. If the goal was to create even more unemployment by causing the domestic helpers of smokers to be ‘let go’, mission accomplished,” he said.
A survey conducted by Clippa Sales suggests that the proposed Bill will kill small businesses, which will lead to many people losing their jobs.
The survey was conducted on more than 200 specialist tobacconists in South Africa, representing 1 769 stores that directly employ a collective of 319 people.
According to the survey, 98% of respondents, all small businesses operating across the country, disagreed with the display ban, with 99.5% saying it would severely impact their business, threaten their sustainability, and place thousands of jobs at risk. Of those questioned, 75% said the bill would criminalise hard-working legal businesses, while 86% said it would damage the lives of employees who depended on small businesses, especially in these exceptionally tough economic times.
Clippa Sales director Alex Jacovides said bans did not work and that the government should have learned from the Covid-19 tobacco ban.
“But obviously, it didn’t. People under the age of 18 don’t shop at specialist tobacconists, where the age limit is already strictly enforced. What is required is education and enforcement of the current laws, not another blunt legislative instrument,” said Jacovides.
The chairperson of the committee, Dr Kenneth Jacobs, said the bill was important for the health of all South Africans.
“The committee agreed that going forward, the parliamentary processes of public participation must take place. The committee will call for submissions. Thereafter, public hearings will be conducted for people to make their contributions to the bill,” said Jacobs.