The government and its social partners will meet next Monday in a bid to break the deadlock over South Africa’s national cannabis master plan and finally get the process of establishing a legal cannabis industry under way.
Earlier this year delegations from labour federation Cosatu and Business Unity South Africa (Busa) pulled out of discussions about the master plan, enacted in 2021 by President Cyril Ramaphosa, over issues including the government’s refusal to involve traditional growers in the process.
Now both are understood to be returning to the process and participating in the week-long meeting, convened by the presidency under the auspices of Operation Phakisa, which falls under the department of monitoring and evaluation in the presidency.
The intervention comes in the wake of the conclusion of public hearings into the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill, which has been before parliament since 2020 and which is likely to be challenged in court if it is passed in its present form.
Cosatu deputy parliamentary coordinator Tony Ehrenreich, who leads the labour delegation, said the Operation Phakisa meeting on cannabis had been convened “to fast track the process of finalising the master plan”.
Cosatu would be participating, and it is believed that the delegation from Busa would do likewise, with both sectors understood to be hopeful that some serious progress would be made in re-starting the process.
The president has made reference to the cannabis economy in several of his State of the Nation addresses, but the process of passing enabling legislation and developing policy has dragged on since the constitutional court overturned the laws banning the plant in 2018.
At present, cannabis can only be grown commercially in South Africa for the medical export market in terms of a licence issued by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA).
The bill, drafted in response to the court’s order, was meant to have been passed by 2020, but has been sent back several times. In its present form it continues to prescribe jail sentences for trading in cannabis, leaving the creation of a framework for a legal cannabis industry to the passing of further legislation.
While a legal showdown is looming over the bill, participants have been looking at the possibility of implementing interim measures that would allow the existing illegal market to work legally and to be regularised while legislation is finalised.
The master plan has thus far been driven by the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development and has been derailed by turf wars between its officials and those of trade and industry, and the refusal to include representation for traditional growers from the Eastern Cape and elsewhere.
The lack of a coherent policy approach has also hampered attempts by provinces and municipalities with a strong cannabis industry from pushing ahead with economic development projects.
The government has identified the cannabis economy as a key driver for growth in South Africa. According to Prohibition Partners, medicinal and recreational cannabis were set to generate more than R30 billion this year.
Garth Strachan, Ramaphosa’s cannabis policy head, referred the Mail & Guardian to the presidency for comment. Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya had not responded to queries from M&G at the time of writing.
Last month parliament wrapped up public hearings into the bill, which places a 600g per person cap on personal possession of cannabis and prescribes jail sentences of up to 15 years for trading the plant.
Amendments to the bill allow for the creation of a commercial hemp industry, but during the hearings, its critics made it clear that they believed it would not pass constitutional muster because it continued to treat trading in cannabis in a different fashion to alcohol or tobacco.
At the hearings, Cosatu said that although it welcomed the amendments to the bill, “some of its provisions send mixed and contradictory messages on the commercial production, sale and consumption of cannabis”.
During the hearings, lawyer Paul-Michael Keichel said although the amendments to the bill appeared to be “an attempt to meet” the promises by Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation addresses.
But the amendments were “unprecedented statements of intention” which “do not belong in legislation that has its genesis in regulating the freedoms afforded to us by the constitutional court in 2018”.
Keichel said the bill “will be tied up in court” and attempts to rush it through would set the process back in the long term.
“Why not use the opportunity to get this right now?” he asked.
He said the bill was “disjointed, unconstitutional and unenforceable”.
“It cannot be fixed piecemeal. We need to start again, unless it goes right back to the confines of the judgement of the constitutional court,” he said.
Similar criticisms came from the Cannabis Action Group, which said the bill only provided for the commercial trade in hemp, and not in cannabis, which “further complicates the issue and is not supported by scientific evidence”.
“This type of law is a clear violation of human rights as it denies citizens access to a plant that has been used for medicinal and recreational purposes for centuries,” Cannabis Action Group coordinator Andre du Plessis said.