This article was first published by BBrief on 21 October 2025
If you are a vaper in South Africa, you need to understand what is about to happen. Within months, the government’s new Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill will pass through Parliament. When it does, vaping in this country will be finished.
The destruction began two years ago with the excise tax of R2.90 per millilitre that wiped out many vape shops. Thousands of jobs were lost, and only a handful of stores survived. Most vapers turned to online retailers as their only reliable option. That lifeline for vapers living far away from a vape shop is about to be cut.
The bill bans all online vape-related sales, purchases and even courier deliveries; no more vape-mail from any source. And it goes further: you may not use any courier, postal service, or electronic platform to buy, sell, swap, gift, or send anything vaping-related to anyone. It criminalises everything: classifieds, second-hand WhatsApp groups, and dropping a device into a courier locker for a friend. Anyone who breaks these laws faces heavy fines or even imprisonment. If you don’t live close to one of the few surviving stores, you will simply be cut off.
Even if you still have a vape shop nearby, you will not be allowed to taste a liquid, try a device, or see how it works. The bill makes it illegal to vape inside a vape shop. It is like banning people from trying on shoes in a shoe store. Vaping will also be banned at expos and gatherings like VapeCon and vape meets.
The government has written the bill to treat vaping as the same as smoking – despite all evidence to the contrary. Vapour is defined as “smoke.” Vaping will be banned in restaurants, pubs, designated public outdoor areas, in your car when minors are present, and even in your own home if you employ a cleaner. The minister will have the power to declare more and more spaces off-limits, until almost nowhere remains.
On top of this, every product is forced to use plain packaging, large warning labels, and an absolute ban on advertising and displays. You will walk into a shop and see nothing – no branding, no choice, no information. For businesses, it means the end of brand identity. For customers, it means buying blind.
All of this comes despite clear evidence that vaping helps smokers quit. Instead of supporting the most effective harm reduction method that exists for smokers, the South African government has decided to destroy it.
And for what? There is no credible evidence that so-called “second-hand vapour” harms bystanders. None. Vaping has helped millions of smokers quit cigarettes all over the world. This bill will reverse that progress by forcing many vapers back to smoking and its far greater dangers.
South Africa once had one of the most vibrant and fun vape scenes in the world. Shops doubled as social hubs where friends were made and knowledge shared, and once a year VapeCon became a celebration of community and innovation. That entire culture is now at risk of being erased.
South Africans should see this bill for what it is. It has nothing to do with health and everything to do with authoritarian control. It strikes at constitutional rights that belong to every citizen:
- Freedom of choice: Adults are treated as though they cannot decide for themselves, even with full knowledge of risks and alternatives.
- The right to work and trade: Livelihoods are being outlawed. By banning online sales and courier deliveries, the Bill cuts off the channels through which modern trade takes place and leaves small businesses with no way to reach their customers.
- Freedom of assembly and association: Vape shops, expos, and social gatherings are branded unlawful, and online communities that once enabled lawful peer-to-peer exchange are dismantled.
- Property rights: Owners cannot freely use or dispose of their own legally purchased property. You may not gift, sell, or even send a vaping product to a friend by courier, and must submit to inspectors with powers of entry.
- Freedom of speech: Branding, advertising, online classifieds, and even basic communication with customers are outlawed, replaced by forced speech and warnings dictated by government.
These are not minor inconveniences but fundamental rights being stripped away under the banner of “health.” Once citizens accept that the state may erase any industry, override property rights, ban voluntary gatherings, and censor lawful speech, we give them permission to do anything they want.
To the South African vaping community, this is your warning: The government is about to wipe out your industry, your shops, your jobs, and your freedom to vape. If you do not speak out now you will wake up to find that vaping, as you know it, no longer exists.
