The prohibition on the sale of cigarettes during the lockdown period has not led to a decrease in public disorder and has made the work of the police even harder.

‘The ban is endangering millions – non-smokers included – by helping to spread the virus, enrich criminals and impoverish the nation. It’s time for the government to admit the error and do the right thing,’ says Yusuf Abramjee, founder of Tax Justice SA.

‘This prohibition is encouraging movement, encouraging looting, impoverishing people who are paying sky-high prices and impoverishing the country when it needs the money most,’ he says, adding that the ban was an error of judgment ‘that should be corrected immediately before it does any further damage’.

In his opinion piece in The Mercury, Abramjee notes that SA has about 11m smokers, many of whom will have voluntarily tried to stop smoking. These smokers are visiting the store to buy their milk and bread, but there they are banned from buying cigarettes at the same time.

Instead, they are driven to seek their cigarettes elsewhere – which increases their movement and spreads the virus unnecessarily.

The criminal syndicates running the illegal trade in cigarettes have established networks and supply chains to keep sales going – even during lockdown.

Abramjee adds that every day of the ban, SA is losing more than R35m in excise duties on cigarettes alone.

‘The total tax loss for cigarettes is double that and will run to almost R1.5bm during the 21 days,’ he says.

‘It is money that is desperately needed by our government to fight this crisis and protect the people. It is money that will be lost to the nation forever if more smokers are driven to the illegal market and never return.’

Full analysis in The Mercury (subscription needed)