New law bans smoking in public places

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Wednesday June 2, 2010 00:00

 

 This includes business people who sell to persons under the age of 18 years.  He says that advertising of tobacco could also earn the offender a charge of not more than P5,000 or an imprisonment term not exceeding three months or both.

On the other hand, despite the public's call for stiffer criminal charges on public smoking, the Ministry of Health says that the control of smoking act has been amended to ensure that non-smokers are protected, and that action can be taken against perpetrators.  Chief Health Officer, Clifford Matsoga, told Mmegi yesterday that they do take action against companies that do not comply with the act that says that smokers and non-smokers should be completely separated in a place where people are gathered in large numbers. 

'We have amended the 1992 Smoking Control Act that stipulated that smokers should sit separately in just one room, and we have now adopted a new act called the Control of Smoking Amendment Act of 2004, which says that the room should be separated with a wall, and smokers and non-smokers should not be able to mix in anyway,' he said.

Matsoga says that the act was amended because even though smokers sit separately from non-smokers, the smoke would still affect them since they are still in the same room.  The act was amended in a way that smoking by other people would not affect the non-smokers in that place at that time.  Matsoga stressed that the government takes action against offenders, though they have not got to the point of imprisoning or fining  offenders.

'In most cases we just talk to offenders and usually they comply immediately, and we therefore needed not to fine them or take them before the law' he said.  However, he says that in some instances, they had to close down businesses before owners complied with the law. 

'Some time back we had to call the police because a certain businessman refused to comply. We engage the police when someone gets difficult or close the business until they comply with the law,' he said.Matsoga has advised the public to report cases of public smoking to the nearest council since the ministry has entrusted them with the duty of enforcing this law, and putting up signs in public areas where smoking is prohibited. 

'People can report to either councils or the police.  We are not saying they can not report to us but the relevant authorities who will attend to them immediately are the nearest councils and the police,' he said.