![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calloffthesearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Companies.jpg?resize=740%2C271&quality=95&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe letter \u2013 which is signed by a number of corporate heavyweights, from British American Tobacco, the Southern African Agri Initiative to Fresh Stop and Spar \u2013 outlines a couple of main reasons (not including that smokers are dying to get their hands on a packet of fags \u2026 they have all been getting their fix somehow: illegal cigarettes, Mary Jane, crack cocaine \u2026 that sort of thing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reasons to lift the ban include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- It has extinguished livelihoods that sustain thousands of families. \u201cThe pain has echoed from the tobacco fields of Limpopo to the spaza shops of Soweto, Umlazi and the Cape Flats. Proud factory workers, truck drivers and store staff are being denied the ability to put bread on the table, shoes on the feet of their children, schoolbooks in their bags and a safe roof over their head.\u201d
<\/li> - 11 million previously law-abiding smokers and vapers have been turned into criminals. (I am not sure that \u201claw-abiding\u201d is the best fit, but \u201ccriminal\u201d doesn\u2019t fit at all)
<\/li> - It has cost the country R3.5 billion in excise taxes
<\/li> - The \u201cmillionaire criminals\u201d in the Illegal trade have reaped the rewards, \u201ctheir corrupt enterprises have thrived beyond their wildest dreams\u201d.
Call Off The Search has heard of traders selling one box of 20 cigarettes for R250. Obviously, no one pays duty or taxes on these products. Working on the basis that a box of illegal cigarettes normally costs R25 on the street, R250 includes an additional profit of R225!
<\/li> - Our national spirit of ubuntu has been shattered. Well, to be honest, Jacob Zuma and wives and friends already did that. South Africans have yet again learnt that crime pays in the beloved country.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calloffthesearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Cost.jpg?resize=737%2C1024&quality=95&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe real killer punch of this message is delivered when the cost to South Africa of the lost R3.5 billion is outlined. It could have paid for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Two new hospitals and 5,000 ventilators<\/li>
- 54 new schools<\/li>
- The salaries of 25,000 nurses, 5,000 doctors, and 20,000 primary school teachers<\/li>
- 8,045 new affordable homes<\/li>
- 23 million food parcels for the poor<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n