[Intl-tobacco] South Africa: No ifs and no butts - fewer South Africans are lighting up

[robert.weissman@essentialinformation.org]

All smoked out - Sunday Times
No ifs and no butts - fewer South Africans are lighting up
June 6, 2004

Edwin Lombard

South Africans are at last smoking less - because of tough legislation and
because cigarettes have become so expensive. Or so claims a study conducted
by the University of Cape Town's School of Economics, which has found that
the number of smokers has dropped by a third since 1993 - which translates
into 592 million fewer packs of cigarettes being smoked.

The biggest quitters were black smokers, while whites are puffing like neve=
r
before. Researcher Corn=E9 van Walbeek said that after peaking at two billi=
on
packs a year in 1991, total cigarette consumption dropped to 1.3 billion
packs in 2001, the latest available figure. Between 1995 and 2001,
cigarette consumption dropped at an annual rate of 5.7%. The average price
of cigarettes has risen 116% since 1993. In 2001 the government raked in
more than R2.5-billion in taxes on tobacco products.

Van Walbeek believes that poorer, mostly black, people are kicking the
habit, showing that the state's strategy of raising tobacco taxes is helpin=
g
to discourage smoking.

The study showed that:

Smoking among Africans, which stood at 28.1% in 1993, had declined to 22.7%
in 2000;

The number of coloured smokers dropped from 49.3% in 1993 to 48.7% in 2000;

The percentage of Indian smokers dropped from 32.3% in 1993 to 28.2% seven
years later, while;

White smokers increased from 35.6% in 1993 to 36.6%.

Sibani Mngadi, spokesman for Health Minister Manto Tshabala la-Msimang, sai=
d
the research confirmed the results of a recent study by the Medical Researc=
h
Council which showed that smoking was decreasing among young people. He
said government campaigns to highlight the harmful effects of smoking and t=
o
promote healthier lifestyles were starting to bear fruit.

Van Walbeek said that while cigarette prices were putting South Africans of=
f
smoking, in developed countries the decrease in cigarette sales was the
result of increased health awareness. Faced with a crackdown on overt
advertising, the tobacco industry has turned to innovative marketing that
targets the wealthy. This, it is claimed, partly explains the increase in
the number of white smokers. New tactics have included giving away
cigarettes on university campuses and at major sports events.

The tobacco industry faces a further clampdown, with drastic new legislatio=
n
in the pipeline that will force retailers to place their cigarettes out of
sight of customers and which will ban any sporting or even charitable
sponsorship by tobacco companies. This week the tobacco industry questioned
the UCT research, saying it failed to factor in the rise of cigarette
smuggling, a response to the government' s steep increase in excise duties =
-
which today account for 52% of the average retail price.

Francois van der Merwe, chairman of the Tobacco Institute of Southern
Africa, said the fact that fewer packs of cigarettes were being sold over
the counter didn't mean people were smoking less - but that smuggling was o=
n
the increase. However, Van Walbeek argued that there were relatively few
smuggled cigarettes in South Africa, unlike in countries such as Britain.
Only 5% of cigarettes bought in this country, he said, had been smuggled in=
.

The National Council Against Smoking said the UCT research bore out similar
research which it had commissioned. Director of the organisation Peter Ucko
accused the tobacco industry of aiding and abetting cigarette smugglers in
an effort to boost its turnover. "People will tell you they are smoking
less," Ucko said. "Increased taxes are a good thing because they increase
the retail prices of cigarettes. This has had a positive effect, because as
[tobacco] consumption goes down, people will have more money for other
things. This will increase the government's revenue in other ways."

But an indignant Van der Merwe rejected the smuggling accusations. "We
regard ourselves as good corporate citizens abiding by the laws of the
country," he said. Van Walbeek said consumers had borne the increase in the
price of cigarettes since 1993; the tobacco industry, he said, had not
suffered lower margins. Proof that South Africa remained a lucrative market
for the tobacco industry was the recent entry into the market of tobacco
multinational Phillip Morris, which owns the Marlboro brand.

Mngadi said his department's slogan - that tobacco control reduced poverty,
which was launched on World No Tobacco Day this week - reflected the
government's belief that increasing excise duties reduced smoking among the
poor. He said although cigarettes must be sold in packets by the tobacco
industry, the selling of loose cigarettes by vendors was the government's
next target. This was not, however, in the latest package of amendments
before Parliament.