As vape sales rise and make headaches for lawmakers, it is crucial not to turn our eyes away from the shady undercurrents of the tobacco industry in general - an imperative made all the more pressing by a new study by British American Tobacco South Africa Ipsos. The study has lifted the proverbial log of the industry to find alarming evidence of the thriving multibillion-rand illicit tobacco trade in South Africa, hidden from the public eye.
These scarily high figures were pushed up during SA's COVID-19 lockdown, when cigarette smugglers capitalised both on customers' desperation for tobacco products during the ban on these items during the lockdown, as well as the government's inability to monitor and control the movement of untaxed cigarettes.