Guest Writer
MBABANE – While some countries are lauded for their progressive anti-smoking policies, Eswatini and other countries are falling behind by not enabling access to harm-reduction products.
With tobacco-related deaths still high across Southern Africa, the call from Cape Town is urgent: evolve or let policy inaction cost lives. This was the view of experts gathered at Technovation 2025 in Cape Town as they called on regional lawmakers to rethink tobacco control laws.
Phillip Morris International’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Andrea Gontkovicova, laid out a four-pillar policy framework that could help save millions of lives: availability, affordability, acceptability, and awareness of smoke-free alternatives.
Eswatini, where regulatory frameworks remain focused on prohibition rather than transition, stands to gain from revisiting these principles. “Laws must not only restrict harm but also enable safer choices,” she said.
Different speakers at the summit made the following policy recommendations for the countries that are lagging behind: differentiation of taxes between cigarettes and smoke-free alternatives; allowing marketing of FDA-authorized modified-risk products and educating health workers about nicotine science.
The global evidence is growing: countries with progressive nicotine policies like Sweden and New Zealand are seeing rapid declines in smoking rates—far outpacing countries still clinging to outdated models.
(Courtesy Pics)
