The Western Cape High Court will hear argument in the legal challenge to the ongoing ban on cigarette sales by British American Tobacco South African on the 30th of June.
BATSA, South Africa's biggest cigarette manufacturer, said it reached an agreement with the state attorney that the matter was urgent and would be heard on Tuesday, a week later than initially scheduled.
The manufacturer is asking the court to set aside the three-month-old ban on cigarettes that was introduced when the country went into a nationwide lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
It is the second organisation to take cooperative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to court over the ban, which she claims is essential to fight the spread of the virus and the severity of symptoms in patients.
The North Gauteng High Court a fortnight ago reserved judgment in the case that saw the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association call for the ban to be set aside as unconstitutional.
Lawyers for the minister argued that there were indications that the ban had prompted a significant number of smokers to give up tobacco.
Legal counsel for FITA countered that this implied a "make-believe" view of the world.
Judgment was reserved in the FITA matter.
- African News Agency (ANA)
