The North Gauteng High Court ruling that upheld South Africa's four-month-old ban on tobacco sales was patently wrong and not binding on the Western Cape Division, British American Tobacco SA (BATSA) has argued in its final court papers filed in parallel challenge to the prohibition.
The country's biggest cigarette maker said its case was about the standard of justification the state had to make when it took a decision that brought a limited benefit and great harm.
Whereas the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) challenged the ban in the Gauteng court on the principles of administrative law, BATSA is also attacking the constitutionality of the measure.
It argues that regulation 45, gazetted by cooperative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma under the Disaster Management Act to ban cigarette sales in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, violated the constitutional rights of all participants in the tobacco value chain.
The BATSA challenge will be heard on the 5th and 6th of August.
FITA is due to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal directly by the end of the week after the high court dismissed its application for leave to appeal the ruling.
