The impact of tobacco products on public health is one of the challenges governments around the world have to contend with. SA is no exception in this regard. Our public health challenges have been made complex by the scourge of communicable diseases that have exploded over the past years placing a burden on the country’s healthcare system. On the tobacco-control front, however, SA has performed well in introducing a raft of legislative and regulatory instruments as part of controlling the use of tobacco products, from marketing to sales. In part, these regulatory tools were also introduced with the purpose of making tobacco products difficult to reach, especially for young people. But then these instruments have also had the intended consequence of creating an illegal market that operates below the radar and thus makes it difficult for authorities to regulate. This has led to the growth of the illicit operators who continue to rob our national treasury of much-needed income. Just t...
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