Protests against the ban on the sale of tobacco products took place in Cape Town and Durban on Tuesday, but cops stopped a march in Pretoria.
"The police were already here. The captain came and showed us the regulations and said we were not allowed to be here. They warned us," he said.Naidine Alers, 50, who was also there for the march, said government was not being fair to smokers.She said it was not fair that the ban on alcohol was lifted while the ban on cigarettes continued.
" It's clear to me they don't care what people say. The people have no say or rights. It seems like democracy is dead in South Africa," he said. Durban resident, Charlene Wannenburg, is not a smoker but was one of four people who picketed outside the Durban magistrate's court. "We haven't had access to legal cigarettes since lockdown because they cost more than R1,000 a carton, so we have been buying illegal ones for about R650. I have a sore throat because every day I'm smoking a different brand. A packet lasts me a day and a night and maybe half of the morning, so I am not a heavy smoker," said Pienaar.
Protester Adrianne Gopper, said:"I am a smoker. It's my life and my choice. I decided to start smoking from the age of 23 and taking that away from me is against my constitutional right. We are paying ridiculous prices."
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