Dagga: SA must ‘free the herb’ to tap into R50 billion goldmine

The budding cannabis industry could inject as much as R50 billion into South Africa’s economy, while creating as many as 25 000 jobs, if government and lawmakers play their cards right.

These figures are based on a recent recent estimate by the African Cannabis Advisory (ACA) Group, who say a well-built legal framework and regulatory system is needed to unlock the potential of the cannabis industry.

Parliament is currently taking public submissions on the Cannabis For Private Use Bill, an event which has roused fresh calls for proper cannabis legalisation and regulation, in order to free the market for legal cannabis consumption and trade. The South African government has also recently unveiled its master plan to stimulate cannabis industry with an estimated value of 28-billion-rand (US$1.9 billion) and which could potentially create 25,000 jobs and billions in foreign investment.

According to Sibusiso Xaba, CEO of ACA Group, the current size of the illicit cannabis market is estimated at R28 billion and “South Africa is known as one of the largest producers of illegal marijuana in the world with over 900 000 growers including large scale and small-scale farmers as well as backyard growers lower in the food-chain.”

Green Jobs

Xaba says the current benchmark for the job creation potential of cannabis is the USA, where the industry has created 325 000 cannabis jobs. This is despite cannabis being illegal at federal level and the industry relying on the individual states legalising it on their own meaning there is no trade between states.

“It is one of the fastest growing job creators in the US and when we use that as the benchmark, obviously a lot of different dynamics are at play in South Africa, so here its between 10 000 and 25 000 jobs in the early stages and that number can increase as the industry develops.”

According to a 2019 study by New Frontier Data, South Africa’s cannabis market at the time was worth $1,2 billion (R17,2 billion) , the fifth biggest market for cannabis in Africa. Nigeria was the largest at an estimated $15,278 (R215 billion).

According to the The Cannabis Industry Development Association of Southern Africa (CIDASA) , African governments and Western companies are currently accumulating cannabis wealth by depriving ordinary people of access to this economic sector. The association further argues that the overregulation of cannabis is illogical considering the cultural and historical significance of the plant.

Also Read: The poor must be included in SA’s cannabis industry boom, says Cosatu

“Most of the people that fought for centuries for the liberation of the plant cannot afford stringent rules and regulations to establish a market for themselves. Indigenous people’s right to create an informal sector market, which is familiar to them, and makes use of their unique skills are taken away by giving rights to the privileged who only have profit in mind,” says CIDASA spokesperson Dr Anita Venter.

“The bill is not well thought through in terms of the whole plant’s structural properties. The bill falsely claims that it reflects on ‘private purposes’ and shows grave research errors from the side of the government. Passing the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill violates the built environment rights embedded in the Constitution,” she says.

Bill not doing enough to free the herb

Some glaring legal conundrums for growers and users have not been dealt with in the proposed Cannabis Private Use Bill, MPs heard on Monday.

This emerged during the second day for hearings on public submissions regarding the legislation which makes prescriptions on the amount of dagga which can be privately possessed, and limitations on the commercialisation and consumption of the plant and its products.

Zurayda Mayet, director at law firm Kleingeld Mayet Attorneys, says despite the cannabis market growing exponentially around the world, from her firm’s experience in the industry, South Africa is moving at a very slow pace.

She says the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill does not make sufficient provision for the commercialisation of cannabis.

“The legal requirements pertaining to the extraction, production, and sale of cannabis for medicinal purpose are quite onerous. Furthermore, the cultivation, extraction, manufacturing, distribution, import, and export of cannabis containing THC is also prohibited,” she says.

Cabinet has realised that there should be a national strategy to commercialise cannabis and as such, should the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s Cannabis Master Plan come to fruition, it will provide new sources of taxable revenue for the country.

The proposed bill places quantity limits on how many flowering dagga plants one can cultivate and how much dagga in grams one is allowed to posses or give to someone else without remuneration. It essentially allows any single person to grow up to four flowering dagga plants and posses up to 100 grams of dagga biomass.

The Bill also prohibits children from using or possessing cannabis, as well as anyone from giving children access to cannabis. If a dwelling is occupied by two or more adult persons, they may grow up to eight flowering dagga plants. A person may only grow dagga in a private place.

Bill hamstrings the poor and landless

The latter has been criticised by some among the Rastafari Community of South Africa (RCSA) which has argued that it discriminates against those who do not have access to private space or land to cultivate the plant.

Also Read: Millions of cannabis convictions could be scrapped

Arguing on the grounds of the plant’s cultural and economic significance, the RCSA argued that the bill does not allow for poor people to freely use and grow cannabis without being subject to police harassment, while it appears to favour those with the resources to obtain and grow dagga legally.

Advocate Zwelonke Mamba, Founder and Director of the non-profit company Cannabis and Hemp Co., says the Cannabis Bill doesn’t appear to have been drafted with South Africa’s socio-economic idiosyncrasies in mind.

“The western standards set, and or adopted, for regulating the cannabis and hemp Industry are attainable yet highly impracticable when looking into the socio- economic status of the country,” says Mamba.

“Modelling a cannabis bill that will cater for the South African people would need a cooperative government with civil society stakeholders and government departments collaborating and sharing information that will help shape a unique cannabis bill, that takes into account South African customary law, traditional leaders, and traditional institutes, as recognised by the constitution of the rRepublic of South Africa.”

Zwelonke Mamba

Mamba joined other speakers during the oral presentations in calling out the bill for not recognising that traditional leaders have not been considered or consulted enough in the drafting of the bill. Many felt that the bill did not have the protection of poor and rural people at the heart of its considerations. This is despite the bill moving to expunge certain criminal records related to the use and possession of cannabis through current or apartheid-era legislation.

Leaving out the traditional weed growers

The Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) has similarly criticised the Eastern Cape Government for failing to consult the people of Mpondoland and other areas which have been earmarked as prime growing areas for cannabis in the province’s master plan for cannabis industry development.

ACC spokesperson Nontle Mbuthuma says it is worrying for traditional growers in rural Eastern Cape who are subjected to constant police harassment that the government is not involving them in the creation of laws around the use of dagga. Not only is dagga traditionally grown for medicinal and recreational purposes, it is also used to keep the land fertile for the growing of more conventional crops.

“I don’t think that we can deal with the question of dagga without dealing with the land questions, because already the government is talking about Mpondoland as central to their plan of cultivating dagga, but we have not been consulted as the people who are already using this land to grow,” says Mbuthuma.

“What is also worrying is we are seeing a lot of people suddenly trying to get land this side, especially government officials, and we all know why. We are worried that the same people talking about growing dagga here are going to want to push people out of their land so that they can grow it commercially.”

Submitting on behalf of the Eastern Cape government, researcher, Dr Dr Mfundo Maqubela also criticsed the bill for not adequately dealing with glaring questions around its commercialisation.

He also argued that there had been insufficient public consultation in drafting the bill resulting in provisions that are out of alignment with the realities of the people it would affect. One of his arguments supporting this is that the provisions aimed at protecting children don’t take into account traditional farming practices where minors are involved in cultivation and plant husbandry.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za