I'd always accepted that people had a right to smoke wherever they pleased. I remember being disgusted at breathing wafts of used smoke while sitting down to dinner at a restaurant and I remember colleagues smoking while they worked at the desk next to me... and me getting home smelling quite like an ashtray. :)

This was until the then Minister of Health, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, banned smoking in public places. Restaurants have been forced to restrict smoking to a small percentage of the total floorspace, and these designated areas have to be properly sealed from the rest of the restaurant. Smoking has been banned from public transport, shopping malls, places of work... essentially all indoor and many outdoor public areas.

If there's one good thing that Madame Zuma did for us, it was to make South Africa a cleaner, less smokey country. Way-to-go Dr Zuma!