Lockdown tobacco ban infringed human rights, says South Africa’s Supreme Court

A rule banning tobacco products during the Covid lockdown in South Africa was strongly criticised by the country’s Supreme Court of Appeal, which deemed it to be unconstitutional. However, the ban was not as widely derided by the public, and it enjoyed some support from public health specialists as well as opposition from retailers and consumers.

Regulation 45 was judged not constitutional as it violated numerous fundamental rights, including the rights to dignity, privacy, bodily and psychological integrity, freedom of trade, and property.