World record bid for World No Tobacco Day

Van Zijl has succeeded in breaking numerous records, including Skyping for 48-hours straight, spending 13 days in a jacuzzi in Fourways Mall, and disco dancing nonstop for 345 hours, to name but a few.

His new attempt, however, goes hand-in-hand with the World Health Organisation’s World No Tobacco Day held on 31 May, and Van Zijl is currently trying to put up 1 million anti-smoking posters across South Africa in 30 days. He was at Cycle Lab on 29 May putting up posters outside the entrances.

“It stinks,” said Van Zijl at the Pedal coffee shop at Cyclelab.

“There are children out there who are starving. How dare a smoker pay R30 for a box of cigarettes, but they are incapable of helping out their fellow man? No, that doesn’t work for me.”

He further said that he is not trying to be condescending and telling people not to do what they want; he just wants people to abide by the laws put in place by the Department of Health.

“The moment you break the law, you are a criminal, regardless of the offence. When smokers decide to pollute my lungs by smoking wherever they want, it’s a criminal offence,” he said.

In the first week, he put up more than 20 000 posters around Fourways, Midrand and other parts of Gauteng by cycling to each destination.

The poster reads:

Tobacco Products Control Act 1993

By law, this area is declared as a non-smoking area. Smoking is prohibited in the following areas:

•  Any public area
•  No smoking in front of any main entrance for 20 metres
•  No smoking underneath any partially closed areas, roofs or walkways

Offenders may be fined or prosecuted.

Van Zijl cycles around with a taser gun, pepper spray and a four-year-old Burmese python in his backpack for protection.

“Some smokers get aggressive with me, and I’ve been threatened many times before. But,” he said with a chuckle, “I’m not scared, they must come.”

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