The tobacco industry wants the final legislation to factor in smokeless products as a harm reduction portfolio, a view that was largely supported by members of the portfolio committee just before they voted on the desirability of the draft law.
Tawanda Karombo
South Africa’s controversial Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill moved a step closer to becoming law on Wednesday after Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health voted in favour of the bill’s desirability, setting the stage for detailed clause-by-clause deliberations that could reshape the country’s tobacco and nicotine regulatory framework.
About 10 members of the committee consented to the desirability of the bill while only one member was opposed to advancing with the draft legislation. The Tobacco Bill will now be analysed and considered on a clause-by-clause basis.
It is on this basis that members – made of parliamentarians from across South Africa’s major political parties – will seek to factor in changes and improvements.
