R20m up in smoke? Gauteng government criticised for ‘failed’ cannabis project

Cannabis entrepreneurs and activists have lambasted the government for injecting R20 million into a medical cannabis farm to train upcoming farmers. 

The growers and the activists were reacting to the news about the alleged botched project in which the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development financed the Silver Tree cannabis farm in Mogale City to train 200 cannabis farmers.

The project was initiated after the farm and the government signed a Memorandum of Agreement for the 2023/2024 financial year. 

Medical cannabis farm: No evidence that farmers were trained

Allegations that the project has derailed are spreading because there is no evidence that the farmers were trained during the previous financial year.  

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In an interview with The Citizen on Friday, Trenton Birch, the chief executive and co-founder of Cheeba Africa, a non-governmental organisation that owns Cheeba Cannabis and Hemp Academy, said he was not surprised by the allegation that the project has failed because it was not properly planned. 

“Again, this comes down to, sadly, typical government projects. Why would you give a medical cannabis farm money to train 200 farmers? A medical cannabis farm is designed to cultivate medical cannabis under very strict conditions. You would not train people on a medical cannabis farm… Do they have training experience?

“They must give money to the people that understand how to train, farms that focus on cultivation as their core. Let those who deal with cultivation train those who want to cultivate as well, because they are the right people. The problem here is that everybody’s trying to do everything, and everyone’s trying to grab everything. So, this is disappointing to see, but 200 farmers is a lot of farmers to train,” said Birch. 

‘We are setting farmers up to fail’

Birch said most of the people who run medical cannabis farms don’t know what they are doing. He said a medical cannabis farm is designed to operate under very strict conditions.

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Hennie Venter, from Cannabusiness, said training 200 farmers was a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t address the systemic hurdles in the cannabis regulations. “We are setting these farmers up to fail. That’s the hard truth. This is where we believe technology, especially AI and large language models, can make a real difference.” 

“The issue isn’t a lack of capable farmers; it’s a system that locks out small farmers. Government needs to come up with a more inclusive model, and with this said, we’re currently using AI to help fast-track smarter, fairer and more inclusive regulations. Just imagine a WhatsApp chatbot that guides a farmer in Limpopo through licensing, in their language.” 

At the time of publishing, the department’s spokesperson Joylene van Wyk had not responded to questions about the project.