Johannesburg - Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has come under fire from the Free Market Foundation (FMF) over his call to “ban all smoking in public places”.
Reacting to what it said was Motsoaledi’s “assault on freedom and individual rights”, the FMF said smoking was not a crime and tobacco was not illegal.
In October the health minister said: “We are going to ban total smoking in public areas. At the moment we have put a corner in restaurants, a corner at the airport, ‘stupidly’ even a corner at the hospital”. He was speaking at the launch of a 24-hour health television channel in Alexandra, Johannesburg.
Motsoaledi added: “I’m saying ‘stupidly’ because we are outright stupid to accept that as human beings why should there be a corner for anybody to smoke in the hospital when we know the dangers. So there is going to be no corner anywhere in any public place, that is our space all of us”.
But in a statement late on Tuesday the FMF said it was alarmed about the increased assault on civil liberties and individual freedom in South Africa, which will not only impact on individual lifestyle choices, but also on businesses, the fiscus, transformation and the economy.
“Minister Motsoaledi’s renewed zeal to ban smoking in public places is the latest direct attack on freedom and consumer choice,” said the FMF without giving any explanation as to why it took more than a month to react to Motsoaledi made the remarks.
“Removing the right of restaurants, shebeens and other private property owners to offer their customers a place to smoke is also an assault on private property rights,” said FMF.
The organisation said by banning smoking in public places and other draconian measures against tobacco use, the government was removing “freedoms by stealth” under the guise of safeguarding the nation’s health.
“Once lost, individual freedoms cannot easily be regained,” warned the FMF.
“These proposals need to be resisted before more freedoms are taken away while the nation sleepwalks into the nanny state”.
ANA
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