THE Portfolio Committee on Health will on Friday 31 January and 01 February hold final public hearings on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill (B33-2022) in Free State,Trompsburg Town Hall) and Western Cape, Conville Community Hall.
The public hearings form part of Parliament’s constitutionally mandated public participation process to consult citizens in the law-making process. By holding these two hearings, the committee is keeping true to its commitment to create a platform for fair and meaningful public participation processes.The Bill seeks to strengthen public health protection measures, align South African tobacco control law with the World Health Organisation Framework Convention and repeal the Tobacco Control Act of 1993.
The proposed legislative and policy changes seek to introduce the following:
(a) indoor public places and certain outdoor areas will be designated 100 per cent smoke-free;
(b) a ban on the sale of cigarettes through vending machines;
(c) plain packaging with graphic health warnings and pictorials;
(d) a ban on display at point of sale, and
(e) the regulation and control of electronic nicotine delivery systems and non-nicotine delivery systems.
Towards the end of 2024, the committee conducted public hearings in the Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal where it received mixed views on the Bill. In both provinces the committee received varying inputs from members of the public and organisations, with some welcoming the Bill because it is a necessary intervention in the context of increasing consumption of tobacco and electronic delivery systems products. Those supporting the Bill argued that public healthcare should supersede selfish profit-making by the tobacco industry. Also, supporters of the Bill argued that there was a need to curb access to tobacco products for vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women and the youth, which the Bill provides. Those against the Bill cautioned that the Bill would be detrimental to job prospects provided by the industry and would open the market for illicit cigarette trade, which would not benefit the country’s tax revenue base. Also, dissenters argued that the intention to introduce plain packaging has the potential to infringe on trademark laws of registered producers of tobacco products, which, according to them, is undesirable. Representatives of the electronic delivery systems industry also called for differentiation between vapes and tobacco products, which they argued is conflated by the Bill.
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