Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay
After suffering two defeats in court over the contentious cigarette ban, the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) may finally have seen the tide turn on Tuesday. Their application to the Supreme Court of Appeal will now be fast-tracked, as the elite legal authority ruled that the case must be heard urgently.
This is ultimately beneficial for the tobacco giants, who will now hope that their arguments for lifting the prohibition on cigarettes will be heard swiftly by one of the highest courts in the land.
FITA had lost their original case against the cigarette ban, as well as their appeal. Approaching the SCA was their third attempt at trying to overturn the regulations, and they’ve already got a small bit of joy from their efforts. Tuesday’s decision does not mean the court has ruled in their favour, but it does result in the following:
Smokers will hope that the momentum is on their side this week, as British American Tobacco (BATSA) are also heading for a court showdown with the government.
They are set to make their case in the Western Cape High Court, over a two-day session which begins on Wednesday. The cigarette ban has been in place since the end of March, and the applicants are set to challenge the Constitutionality of these controversial restrictions.
IMPORTANT: @fita_sa has scored a small but potentially significant victory in its attempts to appeal the dismissal of its cigarette ban challenge
— Karyn Maughan (@karynmaughan) August 4, 2020
Appeal court agrees that its leave to appeal petition be processed on a more urgent basis
Govt to respond to FITA appeal bid by Friday pic.twitter.com/sHksAfBrjw