The Constitutional Court of South Africa on Monday upheld a ruling by the Western Cape High Court decriminalizing the cultivation and possession of cannabis by adults in a private place for personal private consumption, according to a story by The Associated Press relayed by the TMA.
The Constitutional Court said the right to privacy extended beyond the boundaries of a home.
Gareth Prince, leader of the Dagga Party, had filed a lawsuit challenging the High Court ruling saying that cannabis laws as they currently stood violated equality laws. Prince believes that cannabis should be regulated in the same way as alcohol and tobacco products are regulated.
The government, however, had said cannabis was harmful and should be considered illegal.
The court said it would be up to a police officer to decide if the amount of marijuana in someone’s possession was for personal consumption or dealing.
Tag: South Africa
Cannabis growing
Tougher smoking bill
A bill that would toughen anti-smoking legislation in South Africa has been submitted to parliament, according to a story by Nomvelo Chalumbira for Reuters, quoting a health ministry spokesman.
The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill would restrict smoking in public places, require standardized tobacco packaging, ban point-of-sale advertising and displays, and scrap the sale of single cigarettes.
Health ministry spokesman Popo Maja was said to have told Reuters that the bill, submitted to parliament for review last week, sought to comply with standards set by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which South Africa signed in 2005.
“Everything has been taken into consideration,” he was quoted as saying. “What WHO and our country are saying is that it is important for us to make sure that we have a healthy workforce.”
As with previous changes to tobacco legislation in South Africa the bill is facing a backlash from businesses who may suffer from tougher smoking rules. Japan Tobacco International (JTI) was said to have paid for a radio advert aired this month that encouraged the public to protest against the proposals, which were published by the Department of Health in May. “What if your loved one got put in jail because they smoke? It is just one step of the bill controlling your lifestyle choices. Join us in saying #HandOffMyChoices,” said the JTI-funded radio advert broadcast by 702 Talk Radio.
JTI was said not to have respond to several requests for comment about the advert and the #HandOffMyChoices campaign.
The Tobacco Alcohol and Gambling Advisory Advocacy and Action Group (TAG), which campaigns for tobacco control, has said it will make a complaint to regulators about the radio advert, which it believes breaches laws on tobacco advertising.Communication at stake
Philip Morris SA has urged the South African government to create an exemption in its new tobacco bill that would enable the company to provide consumers with information about its heated tobacco device, IQOS, according to a story in The Business Day.
The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, gazetted for public comment on May 9, contains provisions that prohibit all tobacco product advertising.
If enacted in its current form, it would prevent PM from providing consumers with information about IQOS, said Neetesh Ramjee, head of corporate affairs for reduced-risk products.
“The current legislation allows the minister to exempt certain products,” said Ramjee. “It would make sense to insert this clause into the new bill. If we don’t have this mechanism, people will stay on cigarettes.”
Current tobacco legislation permits PM to provide smokers with information about IQOS: for example, in leaflets attached to cigarette packs, but under the new bill, this would be prohibited.
“Eventually we want to get out of the cigarette business,” Ramjee said.
“We are trying to provide alternatives that will meet people’s needs.”
The new bill paves the way for stringent tobacco laws that would for the first time bring electronic cigarettes into the regulatory fold. E-cigarettes are unregulated because they don’t contain tobacco.
Philip Morris said it was seeking legislation that drew a distinction between conventional tobacco products, such as cigarettes, and those that posed less of a risk to consumers.
The World Health Organization, which has welcomed the bill, said the emissions from heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes contained toxins, metals, nicotine and other harmful and potentially harmful substances.
‘Evidence to date suggests that [they] generally contain lower levels of toxic substances found in cigarette smoke, but there is insufficient independent scientific evidence to conclude that they are less harmful than conventional tobacco products, the WHO said in a statement.Bill ropes in vaping
In South Africa, a proposed new tobacco-products bill would extend the government’s regulatory reach to cover vaping, according to a story in The Business Day.
The Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Wednesday published what the newspaper described as ‘the long-awaited’ Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill. The Bill, which was passed by the Cabinet last month, is subject to a three-month public-comment period.
The Bill is said to pave the way for much stricter tobacco laws than previously applied and for bringing e-cigarettes into the regulatory fold.
In the preamble to the bill, the minister said strong action was required to deter people from using tobacco products, to protect non-smokers from exposure to tobacco smoke and to encourage existing users to quit.
Electronic delivery devices were to be regulated because they contained nicotine and the long-term effects of their use was unknown, he said.
Key proposals in the bill include a ban on vending machines, the introduction of standardized packaging and graphic health warnings, much tighter control on smoking in public places, and regulation of electronic delivery devices.
The Tobacco, Alcohol and Gambling Advisory Advocacy and Action Group’s executive director Peter Ucko said the bill was long overdue.
“This bill should have been published in 2010 or 2011,” he said. “Many people have died because it wasn’t.”
Ucko said the language of the bill needed to be tightened up to close loopholes that would enable the industry to undermine the government’s efforts.
But the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa’s chairman Francois van der Merwe said the bill went too far. It would render SA a “counterfeiter’s paradise” and increase the sale of illicit cigarettes.
“There is no urgency for this bill,” Van der Merwe said. “It is a cut-and-paste job from Geneva, instead of developing regulation that can work [in SA].”Illegal trade alarming
At least a quarter of South Africa’s cigarette trade is illegal, resulting in significant ‘losses’ to the treasury, according to a story in The Business Day quoting the chairman of the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa, Francois van der Merwe.
Van der Merwe was one of a number of people who appeared before Parliament’s standing committee on finance, which is looking into the illegal tobacco trade.
Also present were representatives of Treasury, the South African Revenue Service, the Financial Intelligence Center, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Hawks (the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation).
Van der Merwe referred to estimates that the treasury had ‘lost’ more than R27 billion in unpaid taxes on tobacco products between 2010 and 2016.
“One of the consequences of tax manipulation by certain players is that the legal, tax-compliant tobacco sector is losing market share to the illegal sector at an alarming rate,” he was quoted as saying. “At least a quarter of the cigarette market in South Africa is illicit with certain channels selling 50 percent to 100 percent illicit product.”
The illegal trade not only affected manufacturers but threatened the sustainability of tobacco farmers, said Van der Merwe, who added that the legitimate tobacco sector contributed R23 billion to GDP, paid about R22 billion in tax and supported 108,475 jobs.
NPA acting special director of public prosecutions Marlini Govender referred to estimates that South Africa ranked among the top five countries in the world with the highest incidence of trade in illicit cigarettes, noting that the profit margin on the illegal trade was very high.
Govender said the illegal trade was a trans-national problem involving neighboring countries and required effective collaboration in the region to prevent consignments crossing South Africa’s borders. The porous nature of South Africa’s borders and the element of corruption that allowed consignments to pass were factors that acted as enablers.
Govender added that collaboration with the private sector and within the criminal justice sector was required.Regulations proposed
The Cabinet in South Africa has approved for public comment the Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, according to a story in The Eyewitness News.
The Bill is intended to replace the 1993 Tobacco Control Act and bring South African legislation in line with the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The Communications Minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, was quoted as saying the cabinet would decide whether or not to approve the draft bill after considering the public’s input.
“It addresses key areas relating to indoor public areas, display of tobacco products at point of sale, use of electronic devices and the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco products,” the minister said.Factory closure threat
Photo by gagilas British American Tobacco has said that it might close its South African cigarette plant if plans to ban branded tobacco packaging are implemented, according to a story by Thembisile Dzonzi for Bloomberg News.
BAT’s Heidelberg factory is situated south of Johannesburg.
The proposed ban would threaten the financial viability of the Heidelberg operation, Joe Heshu, BAT’s head of external affairs in Southern Africa, said in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg.
Standardized packaging threatened the closure of the factory and posed a threat to the viability of the legal tobacco industry in South Africa, Heshu said.
The move would make it harder to distinguish licit cigarettes from black-market cigarettes and “the illegal market will benefit from having a cheaper product,” he added.
South Africa is cracking down on industries and products viewed as harmful to consumers, including through a planned tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, which Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said last month would be implemented later this year.
In his budget speech, Gordhan announced higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol products.
The full story is at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-01/bat-says-planned-south-african-tobacco-rules-may-close-plant.
FlexLink opens office in South Africa
FlexLink has opened a sales and engineering facility in Johannesburg, South Africa, to support customers in the Sub-Sahara region.
In addition to selling and engineering of new installations, the new unit will provide aftermarket support for installations using FlexLink technology in Sub-Saharan Africa.
FlexLink currently has operating units in 30 countries and works with partners in 60 countries.
Hauni opens office in South Africa
Hauni Maschinenbau has opened an office in Cape Town, South Africa, to support customers throughout Africa. The office will be housed on the premises of Reitech, which provided support services for Hauni’s Sub-Saharan customers in the past. Reitech will continue to assist Hauni with its customer support.
The new Hauni team will be led by Kenji Guenta, general manager for sales and services. A Brazilian national, Guenta is well-acquainted with the region’s challenges and opportunities, having supported Hauni’s customers in North Africa for many years.
