NATIONAL NEWS - The ban on tobacco product sales was never meant to stub out smoking completely.
So said Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s legal team in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday morning, as British American Tobacco South Africa’s (Batsa) legal challenge to the ban got into its second day.
“The implementation of the ban seeks to reduce – she [Dlamini-Zuma] doesn’t seek to eliminate it completely but to reduce – the incidence of smoking and, in so doing, free up the critical resources needed to respond to severe cases of Covid-19,” advocate Karrisha Pillay SC, who is representing the minister, told the court.
Pillay emphasised that the “overarching reasons” for the decision to continue the ban was “to protect human life and health”.
