Informal traders protest exclusion from Tobacco Bill discussions

Parliament's portfolio on health has stubbed the ambitions of the National Informal Traders Alliance of South Africa (NITASA) to submit on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill (Tobacco Bill) amid concerns that banning the sale of loose cigarettes for the over 2 million informal traders would be a death knell for the sector.

Informal traders have raised concerns that the Tobacco Bill introduces a ban on the sale of single cigarettes, which effectively criminalises the lifeblood of the informal trade, that the ban would drive up the illicit tobacco trade, which currently sits at 70%, and oppose the public display of tobacco products.

NITASA said it has been excluded in a box ticking exercise after it had made a written submission on the Tobacco Bill in 2023, and wrote to the Committee this year to request an opportunity to make an oral presentation during the public hearings. The Committee agreed and allocated a date, only to be later uninvited on the basis that NITASA had not included a request to present orally in its 2023 submission.

NITASA CEO Rasheda Muller said the same pattern is now repeating itself with the Tobacco Bill with Parliament railroading through legislation drafted by the Department of Health, while systematically shutting out voices that have legitimate concerns.

"Excluding stakeholders because of a technicality, such as not ticking a box in a 2023 written submission, is unconstitutional and discriminatory. Informal traders deserve to be heard before Parliament passes laws that will destroy their livelihoods,” he said.

Portfolio Committee Chairperson Dr Songiseni Dhlomo said the process, which began in 2023 in the 6th administration, was legally time bound and could not be adjusted because of the new administration.

"The process had been started in 2023. By the end of the last  administration, we had covered seven of the nine provinces. The issue now was to complete the two provinces and other submissions of those who had applied in 2023 to make the submissions at the hearing. If anything, we can be legally challenged more now for allowing new or late submissions than for not reopening the process," Dhlomo said.

He said sufficient notice inviting public participation had been given since inception and that NITASA had been formally informed through a letter of sideline.

Muller said cigarettes are a key product for informal traders, especially single cigarettes, which formed the whole of all cigarette sales in the informal trade.

“When someone stops at a table top seller or spaza shop to buy a cigarette, they often buy other products, so it’s an important part of what we sell. The sale of tobacco products is critical to the survival and livelihoods of informal traders, who mostly live hand to mouth, without savings or resources to fall back on. If this Bill becomes law it is going to devastate the informal trade,” Muller said.

NITASA calls on the Portfolio Committee on Health to urgently correct this injustice, reopen the hearings to excluded stakeholders, and recommit to a transparent and inclusive legislative process.

“This is not only about NITASA, it is about millions of informal traders across South Africa who depend on this trade for survival. Our voices are being deliberately shut out. My understanding is that there were many tens of thousands of written submissions made on the Bill, and only 48  oral submissions were made to the Committee. I doubt that the Committee members have had the time to read all of those written submissions, or ever will, so the oral hearing process is very important. In addition, media are present at those oral hearings, which is critical for ensuring that the public are aware of the laws being developed on their behalf by their public representatives,” said Muller.

About 59 stakeholders had expressed interest in making oral presentations during the virtual public hearings and 48 of these made oral presentations of their written submissions to the committee, while 11 organisations withdrew from the process saying that their input had been captured sufficiently by other stakeholders.

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