Chronicle Editor
The ongoing cigarette ban in South Africa has resulted in prices continuing to spike on the black market, while any benefits of the ban were mostly achieved under lockdown alert level 5, according to a recent study.
Moreover, the study found, brands associated with the Fair Trade Tobacco Association — which went to court to have the tobacco overturned — are proving big sellers under the ban.
Research conducted by the Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products (REEP), an independent research unit based at the University of Cape Town, found that the average price of cigarettes has increased by nearly 250% compared to pre-lockdown levels. This is based on a second online survey of some 23 000 respondents the team conducted between 4 and 19 June 2020, where they found that the average price per cigarette was R5.69 or R114 per pack of 20.
This is compared to a 90% increase in cigarette prices noted in an earlier survey in May by the same team.
The second wave of the study also found that despite the rising prices, a smaller percentage of respondents were trying to quit. The latest research found that nearly 30% of respondents had tried to quit during the lockdown, citing the high cost of cigarettes, while another 14% said they had tried to quit due to the sales ban.
Previously, the team found 41% of respondents had tried to quit, with 12% saying they planned to start smoking again once the ban was over. More than 70% of smokers who quit did so before 2 May 2020.
Professor Corné van Walbeek, director of REEP, described the percentage of successful quitters as “little more than a trickle”, saying: “The intended lockdown benefit of people quitting smoking was mostly realised in Lockdown level 5. The percentage of respondents who quit subsequently has decreased to little more than a trickle.”
The study also found that there were large demographic disparities among those who said they had quit successfully.
“Nearly half of African females and more than a third of African males who answered the survey indicated that they had successfully quit smoking.
“At the other extreme, fewer than 4% of white male and fewer than 2% of white female respondents indicated that they had successfully quit smoking during the lockdown,” the researchers said in a statement yesterday.
Since the first survey, the percentage of respondents who had managed to buy cigarettes also increased. The team’s earlier results found that 90% of continuing smokers had been able to purchase cigarettes, while the second survey found that 93% had been able to continue buying cigarettes.
Most respondents had purchased cigarettes through informal channels, such as friends and family (27%), spaza shops (25%), street vendors (11%) and WhatsApp groups (8%). Formal retail outlets, which were the predominant source of cigarettes before lockdown (53%), have all but disappeared (0.3%), the researchers said. — Sapa
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