Cigarette case postponed until August

South African smokers will possibly have to wait until August for the second of two cases challenging the ban on cigarettes, to be heard.

The country’s largest tobacco manufacturer, British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) and other tobacco groupings have taken the state to court to try and get the 12-week ban on the sale of cigarettes undone.

The legal challenge against the ban was due to be heard on June 30. The BATSA case is distinct from a challenge launched by the Free Trade Independent Tobacco Association, which was argued in court on June 10.

Judgment in the FITA case has not yet been handed down.

But the BATSA case has now been delayed until August, after an apparent directive by Judge President John Hlophe.

On June 24, BATSA and fellow-applicants submitted their responding affidavits to the High Court and the following day, there appeared to be an agreement between the parties that the case would be heard on June 30. But in a day of legal drama, it appears this agreement was then overturned.
BATSA immediately wrote a letter of protest against the postponement.

In response to the news of the court delay, BATSA described the decision was “inexplicable” and “worrying”.

“All applicants, and the COGTA Minister on behalf of the government, had agreed the matter is urgent and needs to be resolved by the courts as soon as possible. This is why all sides agreed that the hearing should be scheduled for Tuesday, next week, and why all court papers had been filed by June 24,” BATSA said in a statement.

BATSA said the respondents had done a “total volte-face”.

Johnny Moloto of BATSA said: “This delaying of justice and a resolution of this issue is inexplicable. By the time the case is heard the ban will have been in place for four and half months during which time billions of illegal cigarettes will have been sold. In this almost six week delay alone the fiscus will lose more than R1.4 billion in excise tax alone as the massive cigarette trade tightens its grip on the country.

The tobacco manufacturer said thousands of jobs stand to be lost in the economy as “criminality becomes the new normal”.

“We are considering all our legal options and will be liaising directly with the government, as we had both previously agreed that the matter was urgent and needed to be heard next Tuesday.”

“Postponing a case that has been agreed, by both sides, to be urgent is something that we believe is unprecedented and is very worrying.”