British American Tobacco’s threat to challenge the Covid-19 tobacco ban in court is symbolic of the tyranny of the markets and corporate attempts to undermine democracy in pursuit of profit.
The implications of British American Tobacco’s aborted attempt to bully Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and the National Command Council responsible for South Africa’s battle against the Covid-19 pandemic run deeper than we have cared to examine. Their attempt to use the courts to reverse government’s ban on the sale of tobacco had nothing to do with what is in the interests of the public or the South African economy.
It is therefore appropriate for us to thank and laud the collective wisdom of the National Command Council responsible for our country’s fight against Covid-19 for putting the health and wellbeing of our country ahead of corporate profit and greed. Continuity in this approach will only serve to strengthen the confidence and trust of the South African people in their democratically elected representatives and government.
What we should not move on from are the implications and lessons from the manufacturing of consent and the political economy of mass media in post-apartheid South Africa, and what we need to do about it.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s NHI parliamentary response in August 2019 should inform the road ahead: “We have enough resources in this country to give every man, every woman, and every child healthcare, but we refuse because we want to promote the interests of a few to the detriment of the rest. We shall change this, and we are irrevocably committed to do this.”
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