Informal traders protest exclusion from Tobacco Bill discussions

PARLIAMENTS portfolio on health has stubbed the ambitions of the National Informal Traders Alliance of South Africa (NITASA) to submit on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill (Tobacco Bill) amid concerns that banning the sale of loose cigarettes for the over 2 million informal traders would be a death knell for the sector.

- BANELE GININDZA

Informal traders have raised concerns that the Tobacco Bill introduces a ban on the sale of single cigarettes, which effectively criminalises the lifeblood of the informal trade, that the ban would drive up the illicit tobacco trade, which currently sits at 70%, and oppose the public display of tobacco products.

NITASA said it has been excluded in a box ticking exercise after it had made a written submission on the Tobacco Bill in 2023, and wrote to the Committee this year to request an opportunity to make an oral presentation during the public hearings. The Committee agreed and allocated a date, only to be later uninvited on the basis that NITASA had not included a request to present orally in its 2023 submission.

NITASA CEO Rasheda Muller said the same pattern is now repeating itself with the Tobacco Bill with Parliament railroading through legislation drafted by the Department of Health, while systematically shutting out voices that have legitimate concerns.