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