The Gauteng health department shipped a consignment of cigarettes to a rehabilitation centre in the midst of the smoking ban, the high court in Cape Town heard on Wednesday.

A recovering drug addict’s statement was also read out in court, in a bid to illustrate the “unjustifiable and unlawful” ban.

British American Tobacco SA (Batsa) and nine other litigants, including farmers, processors and consumers, have taken on co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the national coronavirus command council (NCCC)...