After announcing that cigarette sales would be allowed on level 4 of the lockdown which started on 1 May, the government has since retracted their statement.
The unexpected change in tobacco regulations was announced last week by Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, after the government claimed that they received over 2000 submissions from the public opposing the sale of tobacco products.
“Besides the effects of tobacco on lungs and the way tobacco is shared, it does not allow for social distancing and encourages the spread of the virus,” said Dlamini-Zuma. According to Dlamini-Zuma, this decision was also founded on the basis that refraining from smoking in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic has health benefits.
Bongani Mshibe, Director of Corporate Affairs for Japan Tobacco International (JTI), has his doubts about claims made by Minister Dlamini-Zuma. While some research bodies have stated that there is a link between Covid-19 and smoking, papers published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine found no link between cigarette smoking and the severity of Covid-19 among cases in China.
The Norwegian Institute for Public Health states that: “We have removed smoking from the list because this in itself does not stand out as a risk factor for serious progress of Covid-19 in available data from the outbreak.” The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that research on the link between smoking and the disease has not yet been finalised.
Meanwhile, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in America has also reversed its comments on the connection between vaping and Covid-19, stating that although vaping releases toxic chemicals into the lungs, there is no clear link between this practice and Covid-19.
According to JTI, the ban on tobacco products is rooted in activism by anti-tobacco groups and not scientific evidence. They believe that this ban has also allowed for the sale of illicit tobacco to flourish, resulting in billions of tax revenue being lost.
“Since many smokers have been looking to the illegal trade for their tobacco products, the impact on government revenues could last far longer than any temporary restrictions, as legal sellers struggle to compete with fast growing illegal supply chains that will have used this opportunity to establish new channels of distribution and win over new consumers through cigarettes that don’t pay taxes to government,” says Mshibe.
Mshibe adds that Dlamini-Zuma should take into account the (currently almost) 500 000 signatures petitioning online for the ban on tobacco products to be lifted, as the number of signatures outweighs the 2000 submissions received by government.
The company questions the government’s reasoning behind the tobacco ban based on their observations that countries such as the UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy, to name a few, have allowed the sale of tobacco products during lockdown.
“It is surprising that South Africa has taken a different stance with an ailing economy,” Mshibe says.
JTI puts forth the idea of the government pursuing the option to work with the tobacco industry on solving the issues presented by the Covid-19 crisis, instead of banning tobacco products altogether.
“We are willing to support any education or awareness campaign at no cost to government on educating smokers on product usage under Covid-19 and address this main concern,” the company added.
Although JTI fully supports the government’s decision to instate a nationwide lockdown, they also believe that allowing the sale of tobacco products will diminish the illegal tobacco trade, and people should be given the freedom to decide whether they want to smoke or not.
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