Cape Town’s prestigious Kelvin Grove club, which clashed with health authorities in 2004 over anti-smoking legislation and won, has now banned smoking.
The decision was taken at the club’s annual general meeting earlier this month.
Manager Danie Appel said on Thursday that the resolution was passed by all but about ten of the 400-odd members present at the meeting.
Appel said a call to make the club’s popular pool-bar a non-smoking area, had been on the agenda of the meeting.
”At the AGM one guy stood up and said he wants a reduction in subs because he comes here to relax and smoke,” he said.
Appel said he believed the club would benefit from the move because of the increased number of non-smokers who would presumably now be able to patronise the bar.
The club was considering building a gazebo facility outside for smokers.
In 2004, Appel appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court in a case sparked by a complaint which was taken up by Cape Town’s health department.
The case was the first brought to court under a provision of the Tobacco Products Control Act that stipulates that a maximum of 25% of a public place may be allocated for smoking.
At issue was whether the pool-bar should be divided into smoking and non-smoking sections, or whether it could be classified as part of the 25% of the entire building.
The matter was scrapped after the Western Cape directorate of public prosecutions decided there was ”not a case in law for it”. – Sapa