Tuesday, 18 August 2026

Parliament’s tobacco bill was backed as a move to ban indoor smoking, restrict vape advertising, and regulate new nicotine products under a precautionary public-health approach rather than waiting decades for perfect science.

Vapes were described as lower-exposure but not clearly lower-risk: flavourants, heat and nicotine still matter, and the bill should pair differentiation between products with common baseline rules and stronger enforcement against illicit cigarettes.

Dr Heidi Mattison argued that “mind your own business” can become moral cowardice when children are at risk, linking it to child smacking, smoking around children, bullying and even silence under apartheid.

Industrialist Sam Moncey traced his rise from Lesotho to SAB and Cape Talk ownership, saying his grandmother taught entrepreneurship, his mother discipline, and that empowerment should identify and support talent rather than just reshuffle ownership.

Ezeko Museums is preparing a historic Cape Town repatriation ceremony for Namibian political prisoners and 84 ancestral remains, with families, elders and spiritual leaders involved in returning the dead, grave goods and cultural objects home.