“Why are they making us criminals,” asks a 29-year-old administration manager, who has been smoking for eight years.
Speaking to a group of smokers, they shed light on what effects the ban has had on them.
Many are fuming after they read that Police Minister Bheki Cele had said those caught buying or selling cigarettes will be prosecuted and, if found guilty, would have a criminal record.
“I will never quit. Smoking is the only thing keeping me sane,” she says to me while puffing on a cigarette outside her home in a well-to-do neighbourhood of a small mining town.
Meanwhile, the others are chatting about the old sporting events that are being rebroadcast on TV.
Their talk suddenly stops when she says: “If smokers want cigarettes, they will get them. It’s not an impossible task.”
A 30-something dark-haired man chips in and says they have now resorted to cheap cigarettes because they can no longer afford their preferred brands.
Whereas once this graphic designer could go to the shop around the corner to buy cigarettes, he is now having to do a secret deal.
His father smokes. His brothers smoke. His mother tried years ago to quit, but it was too hard, he shares.
“I started smoking secretly in high school. My parents found out after I matriculated. They didn’t even tell me I can’t smoke. Nobody has a right to tell me what I can put in my body. This is ridiculous.”
He says he is paying R1 300 per carton.
“That’s cheap. The ban is making us smoke counterfeits because the real ones are now too expensive,” interrupts his 65-year-old father.
The ban is excessive, says his wife.
“They didn’t even warn us. We weren’t sufficiently prepared and had no time to get a stockpile.”
They found sellers through contacts on WhatsApp. If they do not have, they know who does, she says.
They all agree that the illegal market will possibly cause additional health risks, but it is a risk they are willing to take.
