Cele dodges the tobacco, booze ban hot potato

The way Police Minister Bheki Cele passes the buck and runs interference for his colleagues, he could have had a career as a Springbok rugby backline player.

He was at it again on Friday, deftly dodging difficult questions about whether the ban on cigarette and alcohol sales will be extended to the end of the lockdown period, in level 1. That has been discussed, Cele confirmed, by the National Coronavirus Command Council… but he said it was not his place to make any announcements in that regard. Fair enough.

However, he actively tried to block questions about whether the bans had been a huge boost to the illegal tobacco and booze trade. He disingenuously asked what people meant by the word “huge”, claiming that he did not know whether it could be used to describe the increased criminality, because, almost unbelievably, the police have no information about the scale of the problem.

Yet, in the next breath, through his logo face mask, he confirmed that “thousands” of people had been arrested for illegally selling or transporting booze and for selling smokes. All told, 230,000 people have been arrested for contravening the lockdown regulations and Cele conceded that a significant number had been for breaking the rules on those sinful pleasures.

Then, he tried, again, to rationalise the booze ban by saying it helped keep emergency rooms at hospitals free of alcohol-related carnage. Again, fair enough.

But following that, he dodged sideways again by remarking that the illegal cigarette and alcohol trade was “nothing new” and nothing to do with Covid-19.

It is clear the lockdown regulations have made criminals of otherwise law-abiding South African citizens, but have made the tobacco and booze mafia immeasurably wealthier.

If they ever made a soap opera about our Covid-19 restrictions, it would have to be called “The Law of Unintended Consequences”.

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