Johannesburg - The Constitutional Court
has turned down a legal challenge against a ban on smoking
advertisements, the National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) said on
Tuesday.
The court declined a request by British
American Tobacco SA (Batsa) to hear an appeal of a judgment upholding
the ban by the Supreme Court of Appeal in June of this year, NCAS
said in a statement.
"After examining the cigarette
company's application for leave to appeal the judgment it 'concluded
that the application should be dismissed with costs, as there are no
prospects of success'," the council said.
It had joined the court case between
Batsa and the government with a "friend of the court"
brief.
NCAS executive director Yusuf Saloojee
said he welcomed the Constitutional Court decision and argued that it
confirmed that the country's tobacco laws were fair and based on
science.
"The freedom of teenagers to grow
up healthily is more important than the freedom of the tobacco
companies to advertise a deadly addiction," Saloojee said.
The NCAS said the recent court case
stemmed from a challenge that began in 2009 to a ban on using social
media and one-on-one advertising for tobacco companies.
It said Batsa had wanted the courts to
find the extension of the advertising ban to social media and
one-on-one to be unconstitutional.
Saloojee argued that challenges to laws
to curtail smoking were an "on-going struggle" with court
challenges from tobacco companies.
"Yet, on the only occasion that
the courts have actually tested the tobacco law it has been (found)
to be reasonable and justifiable," Saloojee said.
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