Undercover shoppers who asked for the cheapest cigarettes available found that illicit products have flooded SA.
The survey, the third on this subject this year, found that the number of shops selling illegal cigarettes in the Eastern Cape more than doubled in just four months since the last time results were released.
According to the research, illegal cigarettes were on sale in nearly half of all shops nationwide and five times as many outlets on petrol forecourts now sold illegal cigarettes since the last time results were released. SA must introduce a comprehensive track-and-trace system to stamp out this brazen criminality once and for all.The incidence of brands owned by or licensed to Carnilinx, a member of the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association , bought below the MCT, increased by a third.
“The bulk of the illicit tobacco problem in SA clearly has local origins, as the report demonstrates. It demands justice and that necessitates an immediate commission of inquiry into the tobacco market in SA,” Moloto said.