Facebook group, ‘Smokers Against Lockdown Cigarette Ban’ called Justice for RSA has launched an urgent direct access application in the Constitutional Court to have the ban lifted.

This is not the first challenge to the ban but rather, the first challenge by ordinary South Africans unlike big tobacco organizations.

Justice for RSA director Bradley Hirner said tobacco products were generalized as ‘guilty pleasure,’ but for some, it was the difference “between normal life and chaos.”

“There is clear evidence that individuals with a history of depressive disorders and substance use disorders are at a high risk of relapse due to nicotine withdrawal,” Hirner said.

He said very few of the 57,000 odd members of his Facebook group had given up smoking in the wake of the ban.

Hirner said the ban was trampling on the constitutional rights of smokers and could not even be justified.

He urged the Constitutional Court justices to hear the case.

They had, as of yesterday afternoon, not yet handed down their decision.