By Johnathan Paoli
The majority of residents of the greater eThekwini metro have rejected the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, raising concerns about it creating unemployment.
Parliament’s health portfolio committee chair Sibongiseni Dhlomo said that during public hearings on the proposed legislation, participants rejected the Bill due to the possibility of over-regulation directly impacting the industry’s ability to create employment opportunities.
They said the Bill could result in the entire tobacco industry value chain suffering disastrous job losses and would likely affect tobacco leaf farmers, retailers and logistics companies that transport tobacco products.
Dhlomo said the consultations emphasised that small-scale traders would be unduly affected by the intention to ban the display of tobacco products on the points of sale as they depended on marketing their goods to attract interest from their markets.
He said the participants remained concerned over the potential of the Bill to infringe
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