South Africa awaits the ruling of three Western Cape High Court judges, Tandazwa Ndita, Elize Steyn and Hayley Slingers, who yesterday heard the key arguments over one of the most hotly contested elements of the lockdown: the ban on cigarette sales.
South Africa is now the only country in the world with such a Covid-19-related ban.
Arguing for Minister of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in a challenge of the ban by British American Tobacco SA (BATSA), Advocate Andrew Breitenbach SC said : ‘Government has demonstrated a gradual easing of restrictions and will lift the ban entirely as soon as it can be done safely.’
Fin24 reported that Breitenbach said the government was well aware of the economic harm caused by the ban on the sale of tobacco products, as well as potential job losses, and was monitoring the situation closely.
Breitenbach said Dlamini-Zuma had acted to reduce the strain on the public health system with the temporary Covid-19-related restriction, and that the minister had considered scientific data in coming the reasonable conclusion that a significant number of people had stopped smoking, even if temporarily, because of the ban.
The minister had indicated that the aim of the ban was to stop people smoking so that they did not get Covid-19 in a more severe form, leading to more ICU beds being needed and potentially over-burdening the health system during the pandemic.
Earlier, Advocate Karrisha Pillay SC, also for Dlamini-Zuma, argued that the mix of Covid-19 and diseases like HIV and tuberculosis created ‘a toxic concoction’ with the potential to have a devastating impact on the lung health of populations with enhanced lung risks in South Africa.
Advocate Alfred Cockrell SC, for BATSA, argued that any benefit achieved by the continued ban on tobacco sales would be outweighed by far by the damage caused. He also argued that the constitutional rights of tobacconists and tobacco farmers were being violated by the ban, putting the entire tobacco value chain at risk.
He said Dlamini-Zuma appeared to have no problem with the impact on ICU beds of allowing taxis to operate at 100% capacity, but sought to stop people from having a cigarette when they got home from a taxi journey.
Cockrell called into question government’s medical basis for the ban, saying while there was no question that smoking was harmful to health, the core question was whether there was an association between smoking and the contraction of a more severe form of Covid-19.
He questioned the reasoning of the expert, who was not a medical doctor, on whose evidence the minister relied, that stopping smoking would ‘give your lungs a fighting chance’ in the face of Covid-19.
‘The argument on behalf of the minister seems to be that, if people cannot buy cigarettes, they won’t consume them, and if they won’t consume cigarettes, the risk of contracting a more severe form of Covid-19 will be avoided and then they won’t occupy ICU beds,’ said Cockrell.
However, even by mid-July, the minister had not given any indication of the demand for ICU beds in the country.
‘If ICU beds are being overwhelmed, let the minister tell us that. She does not even tell us how many ICU beds there are in the country. For the minister it was argued that this is a temporary ban and that government is studiously monitoring the situation and that, if the threat to ICU beds is gone, the ban will be lifted. Yet, she has shown nothing to indicate she is monitoring the ICU-bed demand,’ Cockrell said.
‘The minister says that, because she does not know exactly what is going to happen, she needs to assume the worst case scenario, but with respect, that does not make the ban a necessary step, especially if you do not know whether those people who quit smoking due to the ban will derive any benefit in terms of Covid-19 by stopping smoking.
‘If you don’t know whether quitting smoking is going to prevent people from getting a more severe form of Covid-19, you cannot say it is necessary to require people to stop smoking. So, is it justifiable for the minister to adopt a cautionary approach? We say it is not reasonable and justifiable unless you have the evidence – you cannot simply assume the worst.
Positive cases grew in South Africa yesterday by 8 307 to a cumulative total of 538 184 (with 387 316 recoveries). Deaths rose by 306 to 9 604.
The highest tally of cases is in Gauteng (187 631), followed by the Western Cape (98 599), KwaZulu-Natal (90 115), and the Eastern Cape (81 014).
Globally, more than 18.88 million people have been reported to be infected, and 707 758 have died, according to Reuters.