Traditional cannabis growers in the rural Eastern Cape, the same ones assured of inclusion by President Cyril Ramaphosa, are objecting to proposed laws aimed at regulating the use and possession of the plant. South Africa's cannabis industry received a major boost from the Constitutional Court's 2018 ruling that decriminalised private and personal use of the plant. The landmark ruling has been followed by an uptick in commercial ventures and the development of a Cannabis Master Plan tasked with industrialising the plant, tapping into a R28 billion sector and supporting up to 25,000 jobs. The Umzimvubu Farmers Support Network (UFSN) argues that the Bill, in its current form, would "criminalise the amaMpondo cannabis farmers" and threaten their livelihoods instead of them benefiting from new frameworks.

South Africa’s cannabis conversation is shifting into a new gear, with Finance Minister Tito Mboweni on the record as pushing for full legalisation. Such a move will be welcome, with plenty of economic potential to unlock. But other experiments with legal, regulated pot usage, and uniquely South African circumstances, highlight the potential risks as well. There is the question of small-scale farmers, which the South African government would clearly hope could find opportunities in a formal dagga economy. Neither Colorado nor Canada have millions of subsistence farmers tilling tiny plots in impoverished rural areas such as the former homelands — but even in affluent jurisdictions where pot is legal, smaller producers are finding the costs of entry prohibitive.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s tweet about pushing for it to be legal to grow cannabis - for the SA Revenue Service’s sake - is a step in the direction towards including small growers, although it is more likely they will remain in the informal economy. This is the view of GG Alcock, informal economy expert and author of Kasinomics and Kasinomic Revolution, who said: "We need a policy which is like fair trade coffee where companies like Starbucks invest in small farmers in Costa Rica and central Africa, supplying them with seed and plant stock and then buying the coffee from them. This should be the model we explore, investing in small farmers and then aggregating their crop via large commercial entities.... the problem is that government models do not currently consider this type of model."

Following the Constitutional Court's decision in 2018 to decriminalize the personal use and cultivation of cannabis in South Africa, there are concerns on the ground that black farmers who have been working for decades in what has been an illegal industry may miss out on the potential boom. Many smaller growers cannot afford to get the licenses needed to grow marijuana for medicinal and research purposes. The stringent requirements include getting police clearances, registering a specified plot size, erecting high-tech security fencing, getting irrigation systems and setting up agreements with overseas buyers, among others. The cost of establishing a legal marijuana farm is estimated to be $200,000 to $350,000, according to a South African agricultural publication, Landbouweekblad.

South Africa’s budding cannabis industry has made huge strides over the last year since the Constitutional Court upheld South Africans’ right to privacy in September 2018, ruling that individuals should be free to consume cannabis in their private capacity. The court found that South Africa’s drug laws around cannabis were inconsistent with the Constitution, and gave lawmakers two years to change regulations to be in-line with this ruling. Parliament has until September 2020 to make these changes. Following the ruling, the government de-scheduled some types of cannabis health products, with conditions, making them easier to get hold of. This sparked a rise in a number of cannabis products showing up at specialist stores across the country – all legal.

2018 was a big year for cannabis advocates in South Africa. It was the year the constitutional court ruled the government couldn’t invade the privacy of citizens who want to grow and consume cannabis at home. The ruling was seen by many as South Africa’s opportunity to re-engage with its cultural ties to the plant and enter into the expanding global cannabis market. But judging by what’s written in the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill, it’s clear lawmakers didn’t share the same goals. While the legislation is on its surface a step forward in drug policy reform, its steep penalties and confusing rules feel like a step backward to populations that have been consuming dagga recreationally and traditionally for centuries.

South Africa’s new master plan is a bright spark for those dismayed by lawmakers’ previous attempts to reform the country’s cannabis laws. Introduced in 2018, the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill legalizes personal cultivation but otherwise takes a punitive approach by criminalizing most cannabis activities, including buying and selling. After receiving public comments, the South African Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) led the development of the cannabis master plan, which was presented to the justice committee. Critics point out that the plan lacks a restorative justice component for communities hurt most by prohibition and ignores the thousands of Indigenous Black farmers who are the backbone of the dagga industry today.

A ruling by the South African Constitutional Court opens the way for decriminalising private use of cannabis, locally known as “dagga”. It marks a definitive shift in a century of notoriously punitive drug policy, recognised in the recent judgement to be “replete with racism”. In 1922, cannabis was officially classified and designated for control as a “habit-forming drug” through a national Customs and Excise Act. Consequences of this legal development were not only local: they were global. A year after the national law was passed, the government under Prime Minister Jan Smuts, approached the League of Nations’ “Dangerous Drugs” committees requesting that cannabis be included within the same registers as opium, morphine and cocaine.

The Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill provides clarity around the growing and private use of cannabis in South Africa. In its current form the bill is ‘far from perfect’ as it permits and prohibits arguably arbitrary quantities, and creates some curious offences with harsh sentences. ‘Cannabis clubs’ for private use are proliferating across the country as the rules around cannabis remain in a form of limbo, following the 2018 Constitutional Court ‘Prince’ judgement. “Given that the prohibition against so-called recreational dealing in cannabis is here to stay, and that many cannabis users are not in a position to privately cultivate their own cannabis, the bill must by-hook-or-by-crook be read to legitimise cannabis clubs across the vast rural-urban and high-low income divides in South Africa.”

In South Africa’s richest suburb, against the backdrop of dazzling tower blocks belonging to law firms and insurance companies, a brand-new industry is taking shape — one that its advocates say will transform South Africa’s economy. But not everyone is so sure that the profits from the expected legalisation of cannabis will be distributed fairly. In September 2018, in a landmark judgment, the Constitutional Court legalised the private use and cultivation of cannabis. Full legalisation of marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use is expected to follow. This might come sooner rather than later. In his budget speech last month, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni indicated that there will soon be a change in policy when it comes to “the green thing”.

The cannabis plant has been used for spiritual, medicinal and recreational purposes since the early days of civilization. In this report the Transnational Institute and the Global Drug Policy Observatory describe in detail the history of international control and how cannabis was included in the current UN drug control system. Cannabis was condemned by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as a psychoactive drug with “particularly dangerous properties” and hardly any therapeutic value.

Download the report (PDF 5MB)
Résumé en français (PDF)
Download the press release (PDF)

Four years ago, when the Constitutional Court decriminalised the use and cultivation of dagga in a private space, the court also provided Parliament a 24-month period in which they could amend the relevant laws. Decriminalising the private adult use of dagga signalled the beginning of a new industry that could bring the ailing South African economy to new highs, but four years later, government doesn’t seem to care. The Southern Africa Agricultural Initiative (SAAI) has opposed some of the elements in the Cannabis Bill. The organisation, which describes itself as a group that protects the rights and interests of family farmers, have highlighted the same elements that critics have argued stifle profitability in the sector, particularly that of rural farmers.