A survey comprising input from more than 200 specialist tobacconists in South Africa has indicated overwhelming opposition to the new Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill that was recently introduced into Parliament.

Brands distributor Clippa Sales says in a release that the legislation introduces a total ban on the display of tobacco and related products, including vapes, cigarettes, cigars and hookah pipes.

It warns that this will harm small businesses who only sell these products.

Specialist tobacconists have called for an exemption from the display ban, in line with international precedent where specialist tobacconists are exempted from such bans.

The survey, representing 1 769 stores that directly employ a collective 3 194 people, finds that 98% of respondents, all of which are small businesses operating across the country, disagree with the display ban and say it would severely impact their business, threaten their sustainability and place jobs at risk.

Three-quarters (75%) of the respondents say the Bill will criminalise hard-working legal businesses, while 86% believe it will damage the lives of employees who depend on small businesses, “especially in these exceptionally tough economic times”.

“While the Tobacco Bill creates significant trouble for all tobacco products retailers, it is clear from the research into specialist tobacconists that proposing a total ban on displaying, in most cases, the only products that they sell in their stores is an existential risk to their businesses.  These are legal products that are only sold, by law, to those over the age of 18.

“Bans do not work. Government should have learnt this hard lesson during the Covid-19 tobacco ban, but obviously it did not. What is required is education and enforcement of the current laws to reduce smoking, not another blunt legislative instrument,” says Clippa Sales director Alex Jacovides.

The Bill proposes a penalty of ten years’ imprisonment, or a fine, for displaying a single packet of cigarettes on the counter, which all respondents believe is an extreme penalty, inappropriate and severely damaging to small businesses.

A large chunk (96%) of respondents also say that display bans will open the floodgates to more illicit trade, such as during Covid-19 lockdown, as well as further entrench the illicit tobacco market.

The illicit trade’s market share currently stands at about 60% of the total tobacco market in South Africa.

Specialist tobacco retailer Casa Tabacs owner Diane Bravo says the tobacco ban during lockdown only served to increase the illicit trade market share, to a point where it now far exceeds that of legal tobacco companies.

“In this case, the ban will damage legal businesses. One of the other provisions in the Bill is standardised or plain packaging, where all brands of cigarettes and related products must look the same. 

“This makes them easy to counterfeit, which is going to further drive crime and lawlessness in our country, and entrench the organised criminal networks that have grown and prospered since the Covid-19 tobacco ban,” she adds.

Almost all of the respondents agree that extreme laws based on recommendations from the World Health Organisation are often not appropriate in the South African context, which has specific and unique circumstances compared with the UK, the US or Switzerland for example.

“We are calling on government to consider the economic impact of this Bill and engage with the sector to find a balanced and sensible approach to tobacco regulation in South African,” Bravo concludes.