Smokers left ashen-faced over black-market prices

Writer: De Waal Steyn.

One WhatsApp message and a few minutes later you find yourself part of an underground network to rival those of any Chinese triad or even the Italian mafia.

The only difference is this network consists of people you know – upstanding and law-abiding ooms and tannies who live just around the corner and under normal circumstances fill the church pews on a Sunday morning.

But ever since government’s sudden about-turn on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products, more and more ordinary people are finding themselves on the wrong side of the law and running the risk of a criminal record, simply for satisfying their craving for nicotine.

Apparently it is pretty easy to gain access to a network of people who know people who know someone who is selling illicit cigarettes, or who can give you the name of someone who is. At one stage a smuggler in Hermanus even had a WhatsApp group where you could order, and within a matter of hours he delivered to your doorstep.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 2)