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TimesLive reports that the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Tuesday agreed with an earlier Western Cape High Court judgment that the regulation banning the sale of tobacco products during Covid-19 lockdown was invalid.
The SCA dismissed an appeal by co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma against the 20 December high court judgment. The SCA also upheld a cross-appeal by farmers, tobacco processors, manufacturers, retailers and consumers and ordered the minister and the president to pay their costs in the high court. In March 2020, the minister made a series of regulations to contain the spread of Covid-19, including a ban on the sale of tobacco products, e-cigarettes and related products. In June 2020, British American Tobacco, JT International SA and consumers of tobacco products launched a court application seeking an order declaring regulation 45, which banned the sale of tobacco products, unconstitutional and invalid. The matter was heard by a full bench of the court in August 2020 and judgment was reserved. Later that month, the minister lifted the ban on the sale of tobacco products. Despite the lifting of the ban, the court passed judgment in December 2020 declaring the regulation inconsistent with the constitution and invalid. In its appeal judgment on Tuesday, the SCA said it had not been established as evidence that there was a causal link between smoking and the risk of contracting a more severe form of Covid-19. As regulation 45 was not necessary to achieve any of the purposes of the Disaster Management Act, it was invalid.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ernest Mabuza at TimesLive
- Lees ook, Tabakboere verwelkom uitspraak in appèlhof teen Dlamini-Zuma, by Maroela Media
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