South African health department is all set to tighten the nation's anti-smoking laws, proposing a total ban on smoking indoor as well as open spaces like beaches, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Stadiums, zoos, parks, outdoor eateries and beer gardens will all fall under the strict vigil. Health officials would allow smoking on beaches but only if the closest person is at least 50 meters away. They are rumors that before introducing any new law, the health ministry will soon put forward the proposals to the public for discussions and feedback.
This is the second time in five years South Africa is tightening its anti-smoking laws to make it harder for smokers to indulge in their habit. Before the final verdict is given, many smokers are already hugely angry and calling the plans "extreme," "shameless," and an intrusion on people's rights.
Leon Louw, director of the Free Market Foundation, a think tank that promotes a free society with no regulations said: "It's a kind of hysteria, a kind of peculiar semi-religious fundamentalist Puritanism. It's a kind of vicious assault on other peoples' choices and lifestyles."
Once passed as a law, not following the regulation can even result in job losses, the foundation suggested.
"The anti-tobacco fanatics... the nicotine Nazis or nico-nazis obviously will not stop until its full prohibition," Louw said to AFP.
Anti-smoking lobbyists are happy at the latest rigorous proposals.
"It goes the next step to protect health and we think it will work practically," Peter Ucko, director of the National Council against Smoking told AFP.
Pro-smoking lobbyists believe that implementing such strict rules would be a tough job but Ucko insisted the laws will work.
Ucko told AFP, "Since the 2007 regulations, no one smokes in shopping malls anymore."
The hospitality industry would definitely be affected once the ban is enforced but this might make South Africa the first smoke-free nation.
"There may be certain discomfort for restaurants and pubs, but for the hotels, I don't think there will be an impact from the revenue point of view," said Eddie Khosa of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa.
Reportedly there has been a 30-percent decrease in the number of smokers in the last 10 years.
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