The South African Informal Traders Alliance (SAITA) has written to the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), calling for the ban on tobacco products to be lifted.
"Our spaza shops and traders, according to statistics provided by them, depend to a very large degree on the sale of tobacco products, and in some instances it accounts for up to 50% of total sales," SAITA president Rosheda Muller said.
The ban on the sale of tobacco products has been in place since the initial lockdown on 26 March.
President Cyril Ramaphosa previously announced that the sale of tobacco products would be allowed under Level 4, but this was changed days later when Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced that the sale of tobacco products would remain prohibited.
SAITA - which conducts business in communities as traders - claims that smokers are now risking their lives by travelling outside their communities to seek tobacco products.
