State requests more time to defend cigarette ban in court
The government is feeling the pressure of having to defend two separate cases relating to its ban on the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products during lockdown, and has requested a postponement in the first case which was set to be heard next week.
State attorney Arista Wasserman has written to Judge President Dunstan Mlambo of Gauteng to request that the initial hearing in the challenge against the ban being brought by the Fair Trade Tobacco Association be postponed, in light of the pressures facing Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, including the national state of disaster.
FITA, whose members include Carnilinx and Gold Leaf Tobacco, launched their court bid in May to have the sale of cigarette and tobacco products reauthorised.
The state banned the sale of tobacco at the start of the nationwide lockdown in late March, citing health reasons. The ban was extended under Level 4 and again under Level 3 of the lockdown. In defending the ban, the government has argued that emerging research shows smoking leads to more severe cases of Covid-19, and the ban is necessary to reduce strain on SA’s health system.