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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TOBACCO PRODUCTS BILL BACK IN LIMBO
- 30 November 2025
- In the Spotlight
- SA Legal Academy
With the National Assembly scheduled to go into recess on 5 December 2025 for constituency work and the traditionally long festive season break – and no further Health Committee meetings on the Tobacco Products & Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill planned – the fate of this controversial piece of legislation has yet to be decided. During November 2025, two key committee meetings were either postponed or cancelled at short notice: one on 11 November, when Department of Health representatives were expected to respond to input received during the public participation process; another two days later, when members would have voted on the Bill’s desirability.
Tabled in December 2022, the Bill lapsed when Parliament rose for the May 2024 elections – by which time the National Assembly’s now former Health Committee had called for written submissions and conducted public hearings in seven provinces.
Revived in July 2024, the Bill’s ongoing parliamentary process under a Government of National Unity immediately came under scrutiny, especially given concerns about:
- the procedural correctness of completing a public hearings process begun during the previous administration, and
- the role of the National Economic Development & Labour Council (NEDLAC):
- in the Bill’s pre-tabling consultation process (conducted by the department), and
- after the Bill was tabled in Parliament.
Since then – having decided to begin the nationwide public participation process from scratch – the new committee has:
- heard oral submissions from stakeholders (March 2025)
- conducted a comprehensive programme of provincial hearings (May to August 2025), and
- received briefings on the Bill from:
- NEDLAC (May 2025)
- the South African Police Service (SAPS) (October 2025) , and
- the South African Revenue Service (SARS) (October 2025) .
A Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) timeline provides insight into the full extent of the most recent public participation process.
According to PMG records, before the Bill’s introduction in Parliament the department consulted NEDLAC twice: in October 2021 and again in July 2022. However, the NEDLAC presentation document circulated during the new committee’s May 2025 briefing has now confirmed that the department resumed consultations with the Council in November 2024 – possibly prompted by concerns raised during provincial hearings held by the former committee. While SA Legal Academy’s July 2024 ‘In the Spotlight’ report did refer to those concerns, at the time the department had yet to formally table the Bill in NEDLAC.
PMG records of a National Assembly Health Committee meeting on 29 October 2025 clarify the status of the SAPS and SARS briefings, which members were assured did not form part of the public hearings process but were instead held in the context of mounting concerns about:
- the implications for revenue collection of widespread illicit trade in tobacco products, and
- inadequate resources for addressing this.
Several points raised during those briefings nevertheless underscored doubts repeatedly expressed throughout the public participation process about the state’s capacity to enforce the measures required to implement the Bill effectively should it be passed by Parliament and enacted.
During the same meeting, committee members received a summary of input made during all public hearings on the Bill (including those held by the previous committee), as well as in written submissions received by the previous committee and during the new committee’s March 2025 parliamentary hearing. It is that summary to which the department has yet to respond.
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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