Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has been accused of ‘high-level ill-discipline’ by the African National Congress Women’s League, and critics of the tobacco ban have been described as ‘right-wing elements’, in a fight-back campaign by supporters of widely criticized Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Dlamini-Zuma has been the focus of intense public comment after she announced the government’s about-turn on the sale of cigarettes. President Cyril Ramaphosa had earlier announced tobacco products would be on sale when the lockdown moved to level 4.
News24 reported that, in a lengthy statement, the ANCWL said it was among those which had made a written submission to keep cigarette sales banned.
It quoted the ANCWL as saying that it ‘respects the freedom of speech, but however we cannot be silent when other people are spitting their misogynist and racist venom bile on Minister Dlamini-Zuma disguising under the right to freedom of speech (sic)’.
The league singled out Finance Minister Mboweni, who last week confided that he had opposed the continued ban on tobacco or alcohol, but that he would ‘toe the line’, despite the loss of revenue to the government.
The ANCWL urged Ramaphosa to ‘discipline members of the [Ministerial Command Team] MCT who fail to persuade their colleagues in the meeting and decide to go out to canvass their personal views in public (sic)’, adding: ‘It is a high-level ill-discipline for Minister Tito Mboweni to announce publicly his personal view on the selling of cigarettes and tobacco-related products after the MCT has taken a final decision (sic).
‘His utterances strengthen the allegations that some members of MCT leaks details of the discussions from MCT. MCT should not tolerate any reckless divisive and irresponsible behaviour from any of its members or any member of government (sic).’
The ANCWL also turned on British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) – which has given the government until 10am today to reverse the ban or face a court challenge – saying BATSA had a ‘mere’ 27.26% black economic interest, and a 13.14% black women’s interest.
And, making no bones about playing the race card, the league went on: ‘Which racial group has the 72.24% economic interest in BATSA and which gender has the over 86% of economic interest in BATSA? Answers to these questions exposes the racial group and gender that benefits more from BATSA whilst the lives of people are lost due to health risks associated with smoking (sic).’
Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina joined the fray, claiming that the ‘country has come a long way in building a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society, (and) we run the risk of reversing these gains if we allow such right-wing elements to go unchallenged in our democracy’.
The government was ‘under attack from tobacco lobby groups, some racists and, those opposed to the ban on cigarette sales’.
Meanwhile, illegal cigarette sales – benefiting murky and allegedly well-connected individuals – look set to continue at a multi-million rand cost to the Treasury, judging by comments from senior government figures yesterday. The Sunday Times reported that Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu said the government had no plans to lift the ban on cigarettes, despite mounting protests and the threat of legal action.
There was ‘nothing to negotiate’, and the government had no plans to change its approach.
Three people – whom Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko called ‘foreign nationals’ – were arrested in Lenasia yesterday for allegedly selling cigarettes. Mazibuko said the three had allegedly offered a bribe of R30 000 to be let off.
Positive cases in South Africa rose to 6 783 cases, and there have been 131 deaths.
In an opinion piece on News24 yesterday, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said the appearance that the province was the ‘epicentre’ of the virus was misleading and reflected the Western Cape’s ‘much more rigorous approach toward actively locating cases, tracking and tracing contacts and conducting targeted screening and testing in identified clusters’.
This was ‘precisely what the rest of the country should be doing to stop the spread’.
Winde said: ‘Of the quarter of a million people screened by 1 May, over 8 600 have been referred for testing because of this targeted “hunting in a pack” approach. In total, more than 37 000 tests have been conducted in our province to date.
‘Our government would be extremely worried (and every resident should be too) if the number of laboratory confirmed cases in the Western Cape were not growing right now, because it would mean our systems are not working in identifying every person who is Covid-19 positive. The reality is, as our national government pointed out, the peak of infections is still to come and it is not avoidable.
‘The lockdown has allowed us time to prepare, but many, many people are going to be infected across the country.’
He warned against comparing provincial tallies as if it were a competition.
‘I believe that it would be extremely dangerous to praise low levels of confirmed laboratory cases as some sort of an achievement right now, when we know the situation is different in reality. This would severely undermine our country’s efforts to “flatten the curve”.’
In other virus-related news
- Reuters reported that billionaire investor Warren Buffett said his company Berkshire Hathaway had sold all of its shares in the four largest US airlines;
- A group of researchers at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) suggest that the Covid-19 outbreak won’t end until 60% to 70% of the human population is immune to the virus, which may take between 18 and 24 months;
- The number of New Yorkers in hospital due to Covid-19 fell below 10 000 for the first time since March, and deaths also declined, with 280 in the last 24-hour cycle;
- In Britain, the number of deaths per day has continued to fall overall, with the country remaining in lockdown; and
- Italy reported 174 new coronavirus-related deaths, the country’s lowest toll since lockdown measures were rolled out in early March. The total number of people who have died is 28 884, while the total number of cases has increased to 210 717.