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7418 comments sent to parliament (closed 4 September 2023)
The Portfolio Committee on Health invited the public to comment on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill.
The objective of the Bill is to:
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- regulate smoking and vaping;
- regulate the sale and advertising of tobacco products and electronic delivery systems;
- regulate the packaging and appearance of tobacco products and electronic delivery systems and to make provision for the standardisation of their packaging;
- provide for standards in respect of the manufacturing and export of tobacco products and electronic delivery systems;
- prohibit the sale of tobacco products and electronic delivery systems to children;
- prohibit the free distribution of tobacco products and electronic delivery systems;
- prohibit the sale of tobacco products and electronic delivery systems by means of vending machines.
Have your say – shape the Bill [CLOSED]
Concerns from the industry
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- British American Tobacco SA (BATSA) said the bill would accelerate the destruction of the legal tobacco value chain and permanently entrench a dominant illicit trade, without reducing smoking.
“Removing unique brand identifiers through plain packaging would make price the primary consumer consideration, causing a shift to cheaper, predominantly illicit, options, and this would make smoking more affordable and likely increase consumption,” - Warren Dreyer, owner of a chain of 25 specialist tobacco stores called JJ Cale, which employs 95 people said: “If this Bill is passed, it will mean that as a specialist tobacconist, I will be banned from displaying the actual products that I sell.
- Limpopo Tobacco Processors, represented by François van der Merwe said: “Government should go back to the drawing board and work on realistic and practical solutions that are based on the economic and social realities of the day – and stop opening up the South African economy to more and more mafia-type, tax-dodging criminal networks. We have enough of those already,”
- British American Tobacco SA (BATSA) said the bill would accelerate the destruction of the legal tobacco value chain and permanently entrench a dominant illicit trade, without reducing smoking.