MOFFET MOFOKENG, Johannesburg | Thursday
RASTAFARI candidate attorney Garreth Prince said on Wednesday he would challenge the Constitutional Court’s judgment on the use of cannabis at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in May.
”I am taking up my matter with the African Commission, even though they don’t have jurisdiction to tell the government what to do, but they can add persuasive value,” Prince told a packed lecture hall at the University of the Wiwatersrand in Johannesburg.
He said the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria would help him in this matter.
The African Commission is an organ of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Its next session is in Tripoli, Libya, from April 23 to May 7. Established in 1987, it is an enforcement mechanism established under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It promotes and protect rights in the African Charter, engages in conflict resolution and investigate violations of rights.
Prince lost a Constitutional Court battle earlier this year in which he wanted cannabis or dagga to be legalised for Rastafarian religious purposes.
The court ruled against him, saying if an exemption was permitted in general terms for the use of harmful drugs by people for religious purposes, the State’s ability to enforce its drugs legislation would be substantially impaired.
Prince, a candidate attorney who was refused admission to the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope because of two convictions for possession of dagga, said the organisation had treated him unfairly.
”But they will not stop me. I still want to be a lawyer. I believe that justice will prevail even though it might take time.
”There is space for everyone in this country, there is space for cannabis too. The Law Society wants to tell me ‘Mr Garreth Prince you are fit and proper if you smoke cigarette and drink alcohol’.
”But it is not right for you to burn the little herb,” he said.
When a student asked him how made his living, he responded: ”I sell fruits and vegetables.” – Sapa