Cape Town Check: How transforming into an anti-smoking University

On the 2nd of March the University of Cape Town (UCT) Ikeys hosted the University of Witswatersrand for a Varsity Cup Rugby Fixture. The event took place at the UCT Green Mile with many students and supporters present. Since the most recent Draft Tobacco Bill (2019) aims to make Cape Town a smoke-free zone, we used this opportunity to give students a chance to air their views.

South African government and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s concern with the deadly effects of tobacco led to a proposal of new smoking laws. The new Draft Bill is meant to prevent smokers and non-smokers from using tobacco products, by putting a ban on smoking in certain public spaces and advertising of tobacco products.

Romy Rushton, a third year UCT students, claims that “Cape Town will never reach a 100% smoke-free place”

The Draft Bill can remove designated smoking areas and restrict youth smokers from smoking in public places. It will not, however, encourage students to stop smoking. University of Cape Town students state that restrictions on smoking in bars, restaurants, and on campus have not prevented them from smoking. “Students will smoke in areas on campus that have non-smoking signs, they just don’t care” said Nikmat Hassan, a fourth-year student. “They tried to do it in the Café. They put non-smoking signs here, put people still smoke” she added.

“I think the non-smoking policy makes it harder to smoke which might discourage people from smoking, but if you’re a smoker I think you will always find a way to smoke. If you want to smoke, you will break the rules,” said third- year student Saabirah Rouloun.

The new Draft Bill hopes to ban the public displaying and advertising of cigarettes at stores and vending machines. Cigarettes will only be sold if the packages are labelled with a warning sign and its brand name. Catherine O. Egbe, a journalist for the The Conversation, believes that this ban will “make tobacco packages less attractive to new smokers and discourage smokers from continuing to smoke.” Is this necessarily true?

“A lot of smokers overlook the packaging on cigarettes,” said UCT student Mogamed Qaasim Hendricks. “I can’t remember the last time I bought a pack of cigarettes and looked at its labels. I just open the box and smoke them.”

Business Tech suggests that South Africans don’t fully comply with tobacco control laws. Even Bongani Mshibe, Japan Tobacco International’s corporate affairs director for South Africa, said that “the question is whether anyone is listening,” in regard to the new proposals.

Even though the bill attempts to make South Africa a 100% smoke-free zone, Yusef Libndricus believes that “the ban won’t stop anyone. If you want to smoke, then you will find ways to continue smoking.”

According to Tobacco Tactics, a 2017 national survey found that 20% of South Africa’s population (Age 15+) smoked cigarettes. About 37% men and 6.8% women, aged 15 and older, use tobacco in South Africa. With high consumption of tobacco, the new Draft Bill is meant to “place South Africa on the right path.”

South African government hopes to discourage South Africans from using tobacco by proposing new smoking laws. Their proposal strides to make Cape Town a 100% smoke-free place, by banning smoking spaces around Cape Town. Based off of students from the University of Cape Town, removal of smoking spaces will be ineffective because smokers continue to find ways to consume tobacco. This ban won’t “make a difference”, says UCT student Fathima Moola.