[Intl-tobacco] South Africa: BAT signs upset anti-smokers (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

BAT signs upset anti-smokers
Source: News24, Friday, 3/30/01

Cape Town - A move by the British American Tobacco (BAT) to assist the
Health Department in relaying smoking laws to retailers, has been slated
by the National Council Against Smoking.

BAT - an amalgamation of Rothmans International, Rembrandt group and
British American Tobacco and one of the biggest tobacco houses in South
Africa - on Thursday announced it would issue notices to about 70 000
retailers to inform them about the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act.

Director of the National Council Against Smoking, Yussuf Saloojee,
labelled BAT's action as a public relations exercise.

"This the kind of hypocrisy we can expect from BAT...they claim to act
responsibly by offering retailers information on the law but they are in
fact supplying them with illegal signage," he said.

Saloojee said BAT was contravening the law by supplying retailers with up
to eight or more points of notices and in doing so broke the law.

The Act which came into effect during October last year, states that
retailers may only indicate the availability of tobacco products and their
prices on a one-square metre board situated within one metre of a point of
sale.

The signage should also display two government mandated warnings -- an
age-of-sale warning (we cannot, by law, sell tobacco products to anyone
under 16 years) and a health warning (smoking can kill you).

Saloojee said that many small retailers would bear the brunt of law
enforcement and could pay fines of up to R200000.

He said retailers were being used as pawns by tobacco giants such as BAT
and suggested that laws should be reviewed so they must pay the cost the
of illegal point of sale signs.

Saloojee voiced displeasure about the company's local and international
marketing strategies which he said targeted children.

He also highlighted reports that the company's international branches
were, according to their own documents, feeding smugglers with cigarettes.

"BAT would like us to believe they are a responsible company but they
undermine the law in many countries," he claimed.

BAT spokesman Simon Milton refuted Saloojee's claims that the company was
contravening the law. He said they did issue as many sign boards as
requested by retailers and said the miscommunication was between the
health department and the retailers.

He emphasised that BAT seeked to simplify the law by offering their
co-operation with the Health Department and informing retailers about the
"do's and dont's".

He accused Saloojee of mudslinging and said the company should be judged
on their current actions in South Africa and not abroad.

Health Department deputy director Deborah Mopedi said the department
welcomed BAT's co-operation.

She said that although the Act came into effect last year, many retailers
were still breaking the law through ignorance. She said she hoped that BAT
would help clarify the laws and deadlines.- Sapa