The High Court in Pretoria has granted the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) permission to appeal government’s ban on the sale of cigarettes during lockdown.
The application will be heard on July 15.
We’ve just received confirmation from the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria that our application for leave to appeal the ruling of 26 June 2020 dismissing our #CigaretteBan challenge will be heard on the 15th of July 2020.
— Sinenhlanhla Mnguni (@SinenMnguni) July 9, 2020
In June, the court dismissed with costs, the association’s application to have the ban overturned.
The court had ruled that FITA’s argument that cigarettes should be regarded as essential because tobacco is addictive, had no merit.
Government is yet to respond to the news.
FITA’s bid is one of two to have the ban on the sale of cigarettes lifted.
The British American Tobacco South Africa’s (BATSA) case will be heard on 5 August.
In the video below, Yusuf Abramjee speaks on ban on sale of tobacco products:
Founder of Tax Justice SA, Yusuf Abramjee, has previously called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene in the matter and overturn the ban.
“Every day that the ban continues, the crooks are becoming more firmly entrenched and enriched. During the three months or so of the lockdown, decent South Africans have lost more than R3 billion in excise duties alone that money is desperately needed to fight the crisis crippling our country,” says Abramjee.