The controversy around the sales ban on tobacco products is now also raging on Mzansi’s music charts. Cape Town DJ Max Hurrell’s song “ZOL” is climbing the Apple Music streaming charts, even as fan-made videos explode on social networks like Twitter and Tik Tok.
The song uses a line form minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s now infamous pronouncements when she extended the ban on the sale of tobacco products under level four of the covid-19 lockdown regime.
It sets Dlamini-Zuma’s explanation of how home-rolled cigarettes can spread the coronavirus through the sharing of cigarettes, to a dance beat. It has become a viral hit for producer and DJ Max Hurrell.
Dlamini-Zuma’s announcement of the extended cigarette sales ban has caused an uproar and is being taken on legal review by the Fair Trade Tobacco Association (Fita). They argue that there is no link between cigarettes and the spread of covid-19.
READ MORE: Black tobacco farmers ‘won’t make enemy of government’
Tobacco giant British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) had initially given government an ultimatum to provide clarity on the reasoning behind the extended ban. Both BATSA and the Black Tobacco Farmers Association later announced decisions to not pursue legal action against government, but rather to keep talking.
The song seems to have gotten South Africans smiling and dancing at the same time. Earlier this morning it was in the top 50 of the streaming chart on Apple Music. The chart is updated throughout the day based on users’ listening preferences.
When people zol…
