Responding in court documents to an affidavit from Cogta minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma last week, Fita chair Sinenhlanhla Mnguni said: “The high-handed manner in which this ban is being meted out is concerning and results in citizens losing respect for the process and the wonderfully good intentions with which the lockdown process commenced.”
The affidavit is also critical of Dlamini-Zuma’s stance that the ban would make people quit smoking.
“In any event, it is not the second respondent’s role nor prerogative to stop people smoking,” said Mnguni.
Dlamini-Zuma’s “approach”, adds Mnguni, “is regrettable and has no place in an open, transparent and democratic SA”.
“On the second respondent’s (far-fetched) contention that a large number of smokers have quit smoking following the ban, due to the absence of supply, one would have expected then that there is no longer any need for the ban. The absence of logic is manifest,” he says.
By Matthew Savides
