“We were led to believe we'd be included in level 3 given that we'd been hard done by in level 4. That at least we'd be given a chance to make our case.”
BAT South Africa, the leading tobacco manufacturer in the country with 78% market share of the legal cigarette market, says its trust in government has been broken.British American Tobacco is resuming its legal challenge against the ban on the sale of tobacco products after it says the government betrayed its trust.
Batsa said it was supported in this action by Japan Tobacco International as well as others in the tobacco value chain, including consumers, tobacco farmers and retailers. When this never happened, the company wrote three letters to President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose reversal of his public statement that the cigarette ban would be lifted in level 4 precipitated their legal challenge.
“This is the sentiment in the company. That we have to the best of our ability tried to co-operate and be responsive to all the concerns so that we trade in a way that is compliant” with the original intentions of the lockdown. • Directly contributed over R70m in the Emerging Tobacco Farmers Initiative. The programme directly supports 150 black tobacco farmers in South Africa.The health reasons related to the harmfulness of tobacco products existed before the lockdown, he says. “Surely that doesn't suddenly become the reason now for you to want to ban us from operating?”
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