Articles
Is the gambling industry really the problem?
No external force compels them to spend their last rand on a gambling voucher.
11 December 2025
No external force compels them to spend their last rand on a gambling voucher.
It has cost the fiscus potential billions in lost tax revenue, as well as enabling criminal syndicates to flourish.
These provisions are vague and do not properly define the scope of the Minister’s power to prescribe regulations.
The stated aim of the Tobacco Bill is to reduce smoking. Yet its mechanisms go far beyond health protection.
That lifeline for vapers living far away from a vape shop is about to be cut.
The illicit market in South Africa is already possibly the biggest in the world and has created an unhealthy situation.
South Africa, with weaker border controls and higher crime rates, faces even greater risks.
This process can be called NGO displacement: when NGOs funded by taxpayers start to perform roles that belong to government itself.
This does not just limit lobbying; it obliterates the industry’s ability to participate in civic life, “directly or indirectly.”