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The North Gauteng High Court has dismissed an application by the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association, for leave to appeal the court's earlier dismissal of its challenge to the ongoing tobacco ban.
The court held the legal arguments advanced by FITA had already been settled and that the association had failed to show "that some compelling reason exists why the appeal should be heard".
The court further held that Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had acted rationally when she gazetted the ban in a stated attempt to prevent smokers with severe Covid-19 symptoms overburdening the country's health facilities
