The urgent application brought by British American Tobacco South Africa (Batsa) to have the ban on the sale of tobacco products set aside has been delayed by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for some six weeks because of “scheduling complications”.
Perhaps the president and the minister lost their eagerness to be heard in court when they received Batsa’s replying affidavit and realised what they were up against.
After all, they would be required to come up with evidence to support all aspects of the tobacco ban, including how decisions were made.
It is questionable whether they had even gone through Batsa’s founding affidavit and some 500 accompanying pages of documents that were submitted on May 20.
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