Depending on who you ask, smoking in South Africa is either radically decreasing due to two decades of successful tobacco control laws and taxes, or massively increasing again because those laws and taxes have opened the door to a colossal black market.
Based on tax figures, legal cigarette sales are now at their lowest level since 1976.
A study released this month also estimated that the prevalence of smoking has dropped dramatically to 16.4% of adults, from 22% five years ago.
Source: www.citypress.co.za