Cele: Police have a right to request cigarette receipt
Police Minister Bheki Cele has responded to remarks by legal experts and analysts on law enforcement, smokers and their cigarettes.
This after last week's announcement that if you're seen smoking by the cops you'll be asked produce a receipt to show where you got your cigarettes from.
"The onus is on you to tell us where did you buy the cigarettes.
"Nobody has said it's a crime to carry cigarettes. What we have said police have a right to seek the receipt of where you bought the cigarettes.
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"It will help us to know who is selling cigarettes, when cigarettes are not allowed to be sold and why do buy cigarettes when it is not allowed to be bought. We still have to protect the country from the black market," Cele says.
The Minister was speaking at the National Coronavirus Command Council briefing in Pretoria.
He says police don't have an issue with people smoking in their homes but prepared to answer some tough questions.
"Be prepared to tell the police where did you buy and if you have the evidence, show it. If you don't tell us who sold it to you so that we can visit that person and ask that person why you are breaking the law? - both the seller and the buyer."
