The residents of greater eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal have informed the Portfolio Committee on Health that the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill lacks the necessary enforcement protocols and this lack will make it unenforceable. These views were shared with the committee during the last of three public hearings held by the committee in KwaZulu-Natal.
Highlighting the lack of specifics about how the Bill will be implemented, Ms Hloniphile Mzimela said that the Covid-19 experience highlighted how impractical the enforcement of the Bill will be considering that the South African Police Service is already stretched thin and lacks resources. “If we expect the SAPS to enforce this Bill, how do we expect them to do it effectively if they failed to enforce the Covid-19 cigarette ban? Are we not going to create more criminality by overregulating the industry and the sale of tobacco products?” Ms Mzimela asked pointedly.
She also argued that the Bill seems to be infringing on the personal rights of smokers to decide on how they live their lives, as smoking is not a crime. “This law is being developed to limit the rights of smokers to make personal choices about their lives and their bodies,” Ms Mzimela emphasised. She called on the Department of Health to look at alternative remedies aimed at ensuring harm reduction, made available by the emergence of electronic delivery systems.
Professor Monique Marks from the University of Stellenbosch has over 10 years’ of experience in the field of substance abuse and harm reduction. In rejecting the Bill, she also advocated for electronic delivery systems as a tool for preventing harm. Professor Marks also suggested that the Bill fails to understand addiction properly, nor does it balance individual health autonomy and public health concerns. She also advised that because harm reduction is evidence-based, electronic delivery systems are adequate to assist with the reduction on the reliance on combustible cigarettes.
Meanwhile, Mr Keith Maphutha argued that the Bill will have a dire and direct impact on small-scale farmers who are being assisted by the Department of Land Reform to move from emerging to full-scale commercial farmers. “Young black emerging farmers that are operating within the tobacco industry will be severely affected by this Bill. It invariably will undermine the programmes and efforts by the Department of Land Reform to assist young black farmers to emerge into fully fledged farmers,” Mr Maphutha said.
Despite most participants at the public hearings rejecting the Bill, some participants argued that the need to reduce the devastating impact of the consumption of tobacco products on health is reason enough to support the Bill. Ms Ziyanda Ngcobo argued that she has a personal experience of someone who started by smoking cigarettes and quickly graduated to smoking stronger substances. “When he didn’t smoke, you could see that he lacked something in his system. It pained my heart to see him like that. This is the reason I believe the regulation of the industry is long overdue,” Ms Ngcobo argued.
Many of the youth present also argued that they are from poor families who depend on the proceeds derived from the sale of tobacco products to fend off hunger and poverty. They argued that the ban on the display of tobacco products at the point of sale will harm the livelihoods of small-scale traders.
Malatswa Molepo
14 November 2023
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