Cape Town - The Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa says it wants to reopen negotiations with the department of health on the legislation restricting smoking in public places.
Fedhasa executive director Willem Fick said yesterday that his organisation was conducting a survey of the effect the new law had had on its members and would use this in its approach to the department.
The legislation, which allows restaurants and bars to set aside a maximum 25 percent of their premises for smokers and insists this be partitioned off and separately ventilated, came into force at the beginning of this year.
The department allowed a six-month period of grace, which expires at the end of June, but many establishments have complained that it is impractical or too expensive to make the changes.
"We don't want to come over aggressive towards government. We would like to renegotiate the flexibility of this legislation," Fick said.
"We believe 25 percent is something they can discuss with us again."
He said he believed most of the industry had not yet met the requirements.
"If 15 percent of them currently comply with the regulations, it's a lot. It's a whole wait and see attitude out there," he said.
The Fedhasa questionnaire, which respondents may complete anonymously, asks them to tick one of a number of options to describe their smoking status.
One of the options reads: "I currently permit smoking without restriction throughout the public areas within my establishment but notwithstanding the tobacco legislation I will continue to permit smoking in all of the public areas of my establishment as from the 1st July 2001."
The questionnaire also asks respondents to estimate likely loss in revenue from implementing the law.
Fick said some restaurants had already reported a drop of up to 37 percent in turnover as a result of the no-smoking rules, while coffee suppliers had reported a 22 percent drop in sales.
He earlier told a Fedhasa Western Cape general meeting in Cape Town that the smoking issue had caused "a lot of problems" in the hospitality industry.
Pretoria and Cape Town had become the main targets for anti-tobacco lobbyists, who had no consideration for the impact the legislation had on small businesses and only wanted to put tobacco companies out of business.
He warned his audience that from July 1 they could expect a "series of attacks" by antitobacco lobbyists, especially on high-profile restaurants and hotels.
He said Fedhasa intended to bring out a publication called "The Smoking Zone" to inform the smoking public which restaurants did accommodate smokers.
He said it caused a "bit of embarrassment" for smokers to be turned away from restaurants because they could not be accommodated.
Cape Town restaurateur Cindy Muller told the meeting she believed that, if shebeens and taverns were added to the total, 99 percent of establishments were noncompliant.
She had recently seen only one restaurant that had a legally compliant smoking section.
"From the Fedhasa point of view we will continue to challenge this legislation," she said.