Smoke & Mirrors

To millions globally lockdown has evidently presented unique conundrums, whether on familiar territory, caught unaware in a host country or by surprise far from home. Finding ways to individually deal with the challenges has not been optional extras while navigating stormy seas.

Back home the problems posed by a scenario that knows no bounds have been varied. For an opinion piece carrying its stamp of approval, Polokwane-based Timbuktu Book Club – which recently entered into a partnership with elephants+baobabs - called on its content creator, Sello Mabotja to address the state of affairs.

The writing that takes centre stage on a Friday afternoon is solely attributed to this former newspaperman.

“’Level 3 Covid 19 in Mzansi is becoming a big deal about booze and its smoke and mirrors…’

Hurrah!!Hoorah!! Hooch is here.

Booze is back, only partially. But it is not yet unfettered access to the tears of Queen Elisabeth.

Homebru is back and here to stay. And we are counting bodies felled by poisonous brews. Add the tally to Covid 19 causalities, then the stalk of death becomes too ubiquitous.

Cigarette smuggling is reigning supreme as smokers of all hues search every nook and cranny for a fix.

No skyfs…

Those waiting to inhale are still waiting in vain. So much huffing and puffing from the affected parties, so much blowing hot and cold among the powers-that-be about to puff or not to puff.

Some among us in the know and well-acquainted with science and medicine point out that the negative effects of smoking on the body re often evident after almost 20 years, so restricting trade in cigarettes, let alone smoking is simply misguided.

On the other hand many within the teetotaller community maintain that tipple is a home-wrecker and largely responsible for domestic violence, tears the social cohesion fabric of communities to shreds, lowers one’s inhibitions, thus rendering one to a commit a miscellany of misdemeanours, Disconcertingly, it is the major contributor to the country’s high incidence of road accidents.

What a mosaic of opinions at variance, indeed. Over and above the brouhaha, the court of public opinion is awash with diametrically opposed interpretations of the Disaster Management Act. What a puerile face–off in the face of a looming disaster.

Back in the early 1600s King James 1 of England is reported to have expressed his disapproval about the vices of inhaling… huffing and puffing. “A custom loathsome to the eye, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian (hellish) smoke of the pit that is bottomless,” said the king.

Does this balanced mix of logical explanation of health risks and obvious personal prejudice still hold in an era where the economic well-being of the country is a major determinant of the decisions of the ruling elite?

What are the evident economic implications of the bans - partial or total? It is obvious that a burgeoning illicit economy is fast emerging in the wake of these restrictions. Does this not rob the cash-strapped tax authorities of much-needed revenue and are they not losing hand over fist?

We may be extolling the virtues of closing shebeens and bars, arguing that the benefit is a sharp decline in violent crime, but one form of a much more destructive crime is bust strangling a domestic economy that was already in the throes of a recession prior to the imposition of the lockdown.

According to Tax Justice South Africa illicit trade in cigarettes is booming our revenue services. However, it says SARS (South African Revenue Service) has lost a whopping R2 billion due to the ban. In a terminally bleeding economy such as ours this is just too much, especially taking into consideration the huge pressure government finances have come under before the Covid 19 lockdown and increasingly in the current period.

But nonetheless, the likely adverse impact of carefree smoking at a time when an invisible, invincible miasma of a deadly virus has engulfed all known spaces on the globe is not a trivial matter, more especially how this will affect our severely burdened health system. Granted, the restrictions are softly and slowly killing the economy, which is why we need to expeditiously find balance.

Both sides of the coin carry equal weight. The opinions on both health and economic considerations are cogent. The state rakes in billions in tax revenue from the tobacco and liquor industries. Similarly, the state spends a fortune on our health system. And it is spending billions now and will do so post-Covid 19.

This is not a matter of who dares wins.

We have travelled and traversed similar rocky paths before. We have been here before. At a much larger scale in fact.

We captivated the world just when the prophets of doom and gloom had proclaimed that we have reached a point of no return and on the edge of the precipice or about to collide with the tip of an iceberg.

Dismissed as yet another Third World landmines-laden, radioactive rubble political wasteland and basket case in waiting, we captivated the world later with our own MADE IN SA negotiated settlement. We have the skills, intellectual resources and other related essential attributes. It is time to draw vastly from the lessons of our 1994 political miracle. Let us collectively use the tricky and treacherous Covid 19 lockdown period to tighten the loose ends in our society. We have the will and there is a way.”