South African tobacco bill passed

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

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TOBACCO BILL APPROVED
CAPE TOWN October 23 1998 Sapa
    Draft legislation which will ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship 
and prohibit smoking in the workplace was approved by Parliament's 
health portfolio committee on Friday, despite fierce opposition from the 
tobacco industry, media and advertising groups, and some unions.

    The Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill has already been passed 
by the National Council of Provinces, will be debated by the National 
Assembly on November 5, and then needs only the signature of President 
Nelson Mandela to become law.

    In public hearings this week, critics warned the committee that the 
advertising ban was unconstitutional, and the Freedom of Commercial 
Speech Trust said it would challenge the bill in the courts should it 
become law.

    However, African National Congress members of the health committee 
on Friday rejected industry proposals to water down the ban by limiting 
it to prohibitions on so-called "lifestyle" advertising, radio and 
television adverts, and restrictions on the size and placement of print 
and billboard adverts.

    The proposals were tabled as amendments by the National Party and 
Democratic Party, which, along with the Freedom Front and Pan Africanist 
Congress, opposed the bill. The Inkatha Freedom Party, which voted 
against the bill in the NCOP, abstained.

    The committee approved only minor amendments, including one designed 
to allow people to wear clothing with tobacco logos without fear of 
prosecution, another to close a loophole that could have allowed generic 
tobacco advertising, and one to allow Health Minister Dr Nkosazana Zuma 
to regulate exemptions for "unintended consequences".

    An elated Dr Yussuf Saloojee, an adviser to Zuma, said afterwards 
that the principle of the bill was constitutional and would be upheld if 
taken to court.

    "The Constitution says we have the right to an environment that is 
not harmful to our health, and restrictions on smoking in public places 
will uphold non-smokers' constitutional rights," he said.

    Saloojee, who is director of the National Council Against Smoking, 
said the bill was the culmination of 35 years of activity by the public 
health community in South Africa, and was a victory for health.

    Over 20 countries around the world, many with excellent democratic 
traditions, had banned tobacco advertising and had not been challenged 
in court.

    Chief executive of the Tobacco Institute Edward Shalala said the 
institute was very unhappy that the bill had gone through.

    "The committee, without any shred of evidence from the minister or 
department to justify this bill, decided not only to approve it, but to 
make it even more draconian."

    During the hearings, the vast majority of stakeholders had presented 
submissions that opposed the bill, but offered solutions to its lack of 
constitutionality and harsh economic impact.

    "It appears that the ANC may not even have considered any of these 
submissions," he said.

    Committee chairman Dr Abe Nkomo said the passage of the bill had 
been demanding and exhausting, but was the culmination of "long years", 
beginning with an ANC policy conference in 1992 that took very strong 
positions on public health.

    "We are now translating those policy positions into legislation," he 
said.

    National Party health spokesman Dr Kobus Gous said the way the bill 
was "bulldozed" through Parliament made a mockery of the parliamentary
process and the Constitution.

    The health department's unwillingness to provide scientific
justification for the bill cast a shadow on its motives.

    The bill provides for fines of up to R200, or a possible jail 
sentence, for smoking in public places or in the workplace, and up to 
R200000, or jail, for breaching the ban on advertising and sponsorship.