Tobacco adverts on clothes could lead to a fine

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Thursday September 2, 2010 00:00

 

Advertising of tobacco in Botswana is criminal, intended or not.  The tricky thing is that advertisers can use consumers without realising that they (consumers) are being used. 

The Ministry of Health recently released a public notice saying that it has noticed that there are shops in the local market that sell clothes with tobacco advertisements on. Mophuting says that it is suspected that the clothes are imported from China already having tobacco advertisements. These clothes are jackets, tracksuits and shirts.

'We have realised that these clothes are sold at Oriental Plaza in Gaborone where hawkers buy in bulk to sell to consumers locally.  We suspect that these products are imported from China with adverts already printed,' said Mophuting.

In the notice, the ministry says that 'according to the Control of Smoking (Amendment) Act of 2004, tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is prohibited.  Selling of anything advertising or promoting tobacco and tobacco products is an offence.' Person who fails to comply with the act is liable to a fine not exceeding P1,000, it says.

However, it is not known if importers of clothes have intentions of advertising tobacco or not.  'We have not established if these people wanted to advertise tobacco products or they honestly did not know that they cannot advertise tobacco products in this country,' explained Mophuting.

Nonetheless, the ministry has approached sellers at Oriental Plaza and ordered them to stop selling clothes with tobacco products advertisements.  Should they persist they shall face a fine not exceeding P1,000. Even buyers who have already purchased the goods could face a fine for advertising tobacco products, whether they were aware of it or not.