Impact of Tobacco Legislation on Restaurants 2016

The South African Minister of Health announced in 2016 the imminent introduction of tobacco control legislation to prohibit smoking in restaurants. This would substantially strengthen the Tobacco Products Control Act (1993, as amended), which at that time allowed restaurants to have a dedicated, enclosed indoor smoking areas. In response to the proposed legislation, the Economics of Tobacco Control Project at the University of Cape Town undertook a survey of restaurants in South Africa. the aim of the survey was to identify the smoking policies of restaurateurs and their attitudes to the proposed legislative changes. From web searches, the Project sampled 2000 restaurants out of a population of nearly 12 000 restaurants, stratifying by province and type (independent or chain) and disproportionately sampling small strata to ensure meaningful findings. Owners or managers from 741 restaurants were successfully interviewed, mostly by phone. The project also surveyed 60 franchisors from a population of 82 franchisors.