According to the South African media Timeslive, the South African Ministry of Health stated during a parliamentary review that it intends to exempt non-burning and smokeless products such as chewing tobacco, snuff, nicotine pouches and electronic cigarettes from certain requirements of the bill. In particular, differentiated treatment will be given in terms of packaging and labels.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi stated that the idea of using new-generation nicotine products as a harm reduction strategy is based on the erroneous assumption that “smokers cannot or will not quit smoking”. He said that in reality, most smokers do not want to become dependent on nicotine and wish to quit.
The Deputy Director-General for Primary Healthcare of the Ministry of Health, Jeanette Hunter, stated that the excluded products do not involve combustion and contain fewer toxic chemicals compared to combustible tobacco.
She stated that the Ministry of Health is currently willing to exempt it from the packaging and labeling requirements, except in cases where there are misleading or false claims.
Hunter also stated that in order to protect children, regulations are needed for the types (such as nicotine-containing foods), forms (such as products that resemble toys in appearance) and misleading descriptions of such products. She also mentioned that plain packaging does not eliminate anti-counterfeiting measures, such as tax stamps, unique identification information, traceability marking, security inks, invisible marks and digital authentication codes.
The meeting also discussed a controversial point in the bill: The relevant regulations might affect the cultural and spiritual rights related to tobacco consumption and use.
Vuyo Zungula stated that the Ministry of Health’s statement on this matter was not clear enough. He pointed out that although the minister said the bill does not prohibit the use of snuff or similar products for any purpose and does not affect cultural practices, if no explicit exemptions are made, advertising bans, display restrictions, packaging requirements and sales restrictions will still apply in practice to snuff and other traditional tobacco products.
Philippus van Staden of the Freedom Front Plus party stated that he was concerned that the shortage of law enforcement personnel would affect the effectiveness of regulation, and he also expressed concerns about border management. At the same time, he emphasized that when proposing new bills or laws, consultations with relevant industries and the public are necessary.