The SA government has failed to raise its defences against the influence from the tobacco industry, according to a report released on Tuesday by the global tobacco industry watchdog STOP.
SA’s scored 64 in the 2023 global tobacco industry interference index. This is the identical rating it received in STOP’s 2021 report, which noted at the time that the government’s efforts to limit the influence of tobacco companies had weakened during the coronavirus pandemic. The higher the score, the greater the tobacco industry’s interference in public health policies.
“To continue to sell a deadly product, addict new generations, and make profits, the industry has to interfere and block legislation and regulation that will curb the consumption of its products. Until government sees the industry as it is and puts in place structures and policies to prevent interference, there will be no progress,” said National Council Against Smoking deputy director Sharon Nyatsanza.
None of the recommendations in the 2021 interference index report had been taken up by the SA government, she said.
“Tobacco industry interference is not always obvious — it’s actually almost never directed to the health department. It is government as a whole that has to prevent industry interference,” she said.
Despite compelling evidence that tobacco kills, 29.4% of SA’s population over the age of 15 years either smoke or use smokeless tobacco products, according to the GATS SA survey, conducted by the SA Medical Research Council (MRC).
The government has proposed tough new restrictions on tobacco products and e-cigarettes in the draft control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, now before parliament, but the legislation is unlikely to be finalised before the current administration’s term ends next year.
SA ranked 34th from the bottom of the 80 countries included in the index, which was compiled from civil society assessments of the extent to which governments were meeting their commitments to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The Dominican Republic scored worst (100) and Brunei Darussalam scored best (14).
SA scored fifth worst among the 19 African countries scrutinised, faring better only than Mozambique (67), Madagascar (69), Zambia (77) and Tanzania (79). Botswana scored best of the African nations, with 33, a marked improvement on its previous score of 50.
The tobacco industry stepped up its influence in more than half (43) of the countries surveyed, as governments failed to take sufficient measures to curtail their activities, said STOP.
Governments that have ratified the FCTC agreed to protect public health policies from tobacco industry influence, but are not following through on these commitments, it said.
“Tactics that have worked well for the industry in the past, such as making corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributions to social needs to access senior officials, blocking restrictions, obtaining lower taxes for new tobacco products that it framed as less harmful and smoke-free, and persuading non-health departments to do its bidding, were repeated in the absence of preventive measures,” the report said.
The tobacco industry was increasingly targeting African consumers, it said.
Kenya’s Consumer Information Network CEO Samuel Ochieng said tobacco companies were exploiting the economic and environmental challenges confronting many developing countries. For example, tobacco companies offered cash-strapped governments charity projects, and emphasised the economic benefits and job creation potential of the tobacco products supply chain, he said.
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