Public Smoking May be Banned in South Africa

Source from:  SABC 10/23/2015

South Africans will not be allowed to smoke in public anywhere in the country if Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has his way. The Minister says government will soon introduce a total ban on smoking and advertising of tobacco and alcohol in the country.

Motsoaledi was speaking at the launch of a 24 hour health TV channel in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg. The new channel, The Goodlife Network, goes live on air on December 1 this year.

Motsoaledi says smoking increases diseases and puts the health system under pressure with more patients needing care when they could have prevented it.

"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. 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", says Motsoaledi. Enditem