The government’s ban on the sale of tobacco has not only failed to stop smokers in the Kalahari from lighting up, but has created a flourishing black market.
The continued ban of cigarette sales across the country under the Disaster Management Act has fuelled an underground market in which most smuggling takes place between Gauteng, North West and the Northern Cape.
According to sources, who want to remain anonymous, the cigarettes are smuggled into South Africa from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Botswana, and even from as far as Asia and Europe.
These cigarettes are then sold to spaza shops and taxi ranks at astronomical prices, which in turn is sold to smokers at even more outrageous prices.
From mid-April to mid-June tobacco products and illegal cigarettes with an estimated street value of R16,7 million were confiscated between Kuruman and the Nakop Border.
Just recently the Hawks, Kuruman Public Order Policing and the K9 unit pounced on three foreign nationals with boxes of cigarettes and flavoured tobacco for hubbly bubbly, after following up on information about a truck that was travelling from Johannesburg to Upington.
Nomthandazo Mnisi, Hawks spokesperson, says the truck was escorted to the Kuruman Police Station, where a large quantity of cigarettes and flavoured tobacco were found hidden under groceries inside the vehicle.
The street value of the confiscated items was R250 000.
Just last week Intiyaz Vahora (49) from Kuruman was arrested by the Hawks in Bloemfontein for his alleged involvement in a bribery and corruption case that involves illegal cigarettes (read the story on p 2 ).
According to a survey conducted by the University of Cape Town’s Research Unit on the economics of excisable products titled Lighting Up the Illicit Market, it does not make economic sense to maintain the ban on cigarettes because it is directly feeding the growth of an illicit market.
Smokers are buying cigarettes in large quantities, despite the lockdown, and unusual brands are becoming prevalent.
The percentage of smokers who purchase from spaza shops increased from 34% to 44%, and from house shops from 4% to 18%.
Sales outlets that either did not exist or were inconsequential before the lockdown, but have become important sources of cigarettes during the lockdown, include street vendors (26% of smokers), friends and family (30%), WhatsApp groups (11%), and “essential worker” acquaintances (10%), the survey found.
