THE
TOBACCO INSTITUTE OF SOUTH AFRICA
7 February 2007
From: Francois van der Merwe Chairman/CEO
To: The Chairman and Members of the Portfolio Committee on Health Parliament
Dear James and all Committee Members
On behalf of the Tobacco Industry in SA, I would like to thank you all for
your efforts and attention during the hearings on the proposed new Tobacco
Bill. All of you came back from the December recess and basically walked
straight into the hearings of a difficult, controversial and emotional debate.
We were impressed by your urgency and your commitment to give all those who
requested it an opportunity to address you on their views. You even extended
the number of days which were allocated to listen to all the views. We have
high regard for this conduct and express our sincere appreciation.
On the subject of tobacco, . you have heard many opposing and completely
differing views and it will most certainly be difficult for you to balance all
of these views and do what is right for all stakeholders. It will ask from you
much more attention in your deliberations and we wish you luck with this
challenge.
It is unfortunate that many of the presentations on the Bill were
one-dimensional and focused on only the health issues. This also makes for an
emotional debate which does not always reflect the other non-health issues
which have to be considered in this debate. As an industry, we tried to give
you balanced and multi-dimensional views on the Bill, which included the health
issues but also alerted you to the very important and related arguments e.g.
economic issues, illicit trade realities, practicalities in the Bill, etc. We
are confident that you will seriously consider our presentations when you have
further deliberations on the Bill. We trust you to also regard us as an
important stakeholder and accept our bona fides towards protecting the health
of people.
Lastly, I would like to plead with you to seriously consider the
"snus" issue. You have heard experts from both sides and without
seeming to prescribe to you, it would probably be responsible to take more time
to get our minds around this new development in the industry.
The two facts that we all seem to agree on are 1) snus is not a harmless
product and 2) snus is less harmful than many other tobacco products. In
reality we all have a responsibility to look at and pursue products which are
less harmful to society, albeit food, drinks, car emissions, tobacco products
etc.
As an industry, we have also accepted that snus must be included in the
definition of "tobacco product". However, I respectfully request that
you seriously consider the option of giving the Minister the power to make
exemptions as far as certain products are concerned. This will give you the
opportunity to have more time to learn more about the snus product, especially
given the vastly different opinions you heard from -experts. I believe that BAT
and Swedish Match are in the process of communicating with you with regards a
visit to Sweden to talk to people, including the Swedish Government, about the
product and its regulation.
Apart from lots of hard work during the hearings, we also had some fun, jokes
and laughter between us. This was all in good spirit and I thank you all for
your sense of humour. It's always good to have some light moments, including
but not limited to the Chairman's quote from the Sowetan! Our relationship with
you as a Committee is precious and we wish you luck with your huge
responsibility.
Please don't hesitate to call me should you need any further information.
Best regards
Francois van der Merwe Chairman/CEO