How world sees SA: Covid-19 clampdown on ciggies, booze is ‘govt over-reach’

South Africans have been urging the government to rethink aspects of the Covid-19 containment lockdown, in particular business activity. A ban on cigarette and alcohol sales has upset smokers and drinkers, but it is also having a negative impact on tax revenues. An illegal market thrives, with buyers vulnerable to con artists. The New York Times underscores another worrying aspect of the prohibition on the legal trade in booze and tobacco: the government is encroaching on private lives and rights. It highlights that many South Africans see the bans as a symbol of government over-reach. – Jackie Cameron

By Thulasizwe Sithole

South Africa is known internationally for its very high rate of murder, rape and robbery and widespread corruption. Like other countries, its law-enforcers have shifted focus from apprehending and jailing hardened criminals and white-collar crooks to arresting people for breaking regulations and laws instituted to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

In a particularly strange twist to South Africa's Covid-19 containment measures, people who smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol produced by public companies have become criminalised – adding to the list of things-to-do for the SA Police Service.

This curious state of affairs has catapulted the country into the international coverage of Covid-19. As The New York Times reports: individuals who have run out of cartons of cigarettes have been forced to buy them underground.

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