Industry
The Tobacco Bill is still in committee
Clause-by-clause deliberation continues since the motion of desirability passed on 24 June 2026. No public update on the flavour clauses. Still not law.
South Africa's Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill remains in clause-by-clause deliberation. The Portfolio Committee on Health adopted the Bill's motion of desirability on 24 June 2026, which opened that process. Proposed amendments include changes to the definitions of characterising flavours, electronic delivery systems and combustible products.
As at late October there has been no public update on the flavour clauses since September.
It is not law. After the committee it still needs the National Assembly, then the National Council of Provinces, then the President's signature. Anyone telling you the rules are fixed is ahead of the process.
The part that matters to a manufacturer
The Bill contemplates giving the Minister of Health power to set detailed specifications by regulation — including the content, ingredients and additives of electronic delivery systems, and explicitly including flavours. Reporting on the Bill consistently frames flavour restriction as aimed at reducing youth appeal.
What that means in practice is that the flavour rules will most likely be written in regulations after the Bill passes, not in the Bill itself. So the timeline that matters to a product roadmap is not "when does the Bill pass" but "when do the regulations land, and what do they say".
That the amendments touch the definition of a characterising flavour is the detail worth watching. A restriction is only as wide as its definition, and definitions are where this kind of rule is actually decided.
It is not only a South African file
Kenya's parliament held hearings on 24–26 September on a bill that would ban non-tobacco flavours in nicotine products; industry stakeholders asked Parliament to reconsider the flavour ban on 1 October. If you supply the nicotine trade across more than one African market, these move independently and on different timetables.
If you manufacture e-liquid, the sensible position is to know which of your profiles would be exposed under a restrictive reading, and what the alternatives would be, before you have to decide in a hurry.
Reporting: IOL · BusinessTech · The Star Kenya
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