Allow the farmers to grow cannabis legally, without any need for licences or permits and empower them to start co-operatives.
More than half a million subsistence farmers cultivate cannabis in the Mpondoland region of the former Transkei bantustan. Many are women, each producing a tonne of cannabis annually as a summer and a winter crop. They have done so for well over 10 generations.
Most of these legacy farmers cultivate only cannabis as their cash crop, exercising their indigenous and customary law rights. Their survival depends on cannabis as much as the preservation of these ancient cultivars depends on them — countless modern-day cannabis varieties originate from African cannabis — they share DNA.
To avoid any doubt, cannabis is hemp, is ntsangu, is umya, is dagga. They are one and the same thing — the same plant, botanically and scientifically speaking — and any distinction between “hemp” and “cannabis” based on the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) level present in the plant (currently 0.2% THC in South Africa) is both arbitrary and unscientific. Effectively, a clear product of cannabis prohibition — delusions of grandeur.
The only rational distinction is between cannabis used for industrial purposes and cannabis used for human (and animal) consumption; it remains one plant, rope or dope. amaMpondo know this all too well and use cannabis for its full utility — the flower as traditional medicine and ceremonial incense; the stalks as animal bedding and cordage; the leaves as livestock fodder; and the seeds as food and the following seasons sowing.
amaMpondo farmers, and South Africans for that matter, crave a revolution in agriculture, with cannabis mooted to present such a sunrise industry with vast potential. We have one of the finest yet diverse agricultural climates globally with sufficient arable land to boot. Cannabis, when viewed as a crop, that is, as an agricultural commodity, can ignite exactly the growth revolution that our agricultural sector so desperately requires. This is because cannabis is a plant that can supply humanity’s four basic needs — clothing, food, fuel and shelter.
The National Development Plan (NDP) aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality in South Africa by 2030 — only eight years from now. According to the NDP, South Africa can realise these goals by drawing on the energies of its people, growing an inclusive economy, building capabilities, enhancing the capacity of the state and promoting leadership and partnerships throughout society.
The global cannabis industry was still in its infancy in 2013 when the NDP was implemented. Still, we can now see that cannabis could play a significant role in achieving its goals, particularly chapter 6 of the NDP, which aims to build an inclusive rural economy.
The cannabis farmed by amaMpondo is grown sustainably under the African sun, without pesticides or heavy metals, and on arable land from hillside to homestead. Using only organic practices, these land stewards have spent their lives balancing a unique and harmonious relationship between the land, their ancient cannabis cultivars, and the terroir of the former Transkei.
Instead of showcasing and celebrating these most ethical farming practices and building an inclusive rural economy, amaMpondo farmers continue to feel the full brunt of South Africa’s prohibitionist cannabis laws, with the arrest of subsistence farmers continuing unabated.
Yet “private” members cannabis clubs and “dispensaries” flourish in the cities, and the retail market is flooded with (mostly) unlawful cannabis-derivative products such as cannabidiol or CBD “cigarettes”, waters, lollipops, vapes. The list is endless but enforcement is absent in the land of corporate cannabis.
Will this position ever change? Will amaMpondo ever claim their rightful place as the backbone of an inclusive rural cannabis economy in the Eastern Cape? One might suspect that things will change after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reference to amaMpondo in his recent State of the Nation address. But what will it take? What type of enabling regulatory framework is required to safeguard the interests of these legacy cannabis farmers to ensure that they are empowered to build businesses across the entire cannabis value-chain and not simply exploited as employees for big business? Since grass attracts snakes, will these holders of indigenous cannabis knowledge eventually eat? Or will they continue to be eaten by the police and big business?
The answer is relatively simple, yet not too popular, because it offends the “licensing narrative”. We need to appreciate that the governance structures in large parts of the former Transkei continue to follow the indigenous and customary laws of South Africa in both letter and spirit. The ethos is one of ubuntu and ubuntu alone, of community, of us. So, it’s not a question of “licensing” an individual cannabis farmer to cultivate cannabis lawfully, but rather, what will it take to create and enable an inclusive rural economy and cannabis value-chain accessible to each household already participating in the (illicit) cannabis economy?
Accept that nothing is broken, so don’t try to fix it, nor impose regulatory burdens upon it. Allow amaMpondo farmers to farm cannabis legally, without any need for licences or permits. Empower them to start co-operatives, both primary and secondary, and instead regulate the end-uses of cannabis at the point of processing, to the extent necessary.
A sunrise agricultural industry with enormous potential lies dormant yet illicitly active. The domestic and international markets are waiting and wanting, and amaMpondo farmers are eager to supply it. But who will bridge this gap and enable these farmers to participate at the forefront of the global marketplace? Or will their heritage wealth be forgotten, once again, at the peril of the great, green, gold rush?