South Africa ‘Concedes’ on Outdoor Cannabis Production for Informal Cultivators
Bonno
10-03-2023
South Africa’s president, in brief remarks, has conceded to demands from Black and Indigenous South Africans. Informal outdoor cultivation and harvesting of cannabis will be allowed for those who have cultivated the crop for decades but don’t have resources for today’s strict licensing.
‘You know it’
“You know it”, “They have been growing this stuff for centuries”, “Its (money) has sent many children to school”, “And you know what stuff I am talking about” .… these were some of the coded words and phrases of Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, when he addressed his country’s parliament in the South Africa’s version of the US’s ‘state of the union’ speech on 9 February.
Effectively, the South Africa president conceded that, legal restrictions or not, Black inhabitants of South Africa were cultivating cannabis and what is occurring under the table or in hidden and unregistered greenhouses, must now be gradually allowed to flourish in open without lots of hindrance.
“There is no prize for second-guessing or interpretation of the president’s words,” Dikeledi Matla, chairperson of the Soweto Cannabis Alliance Forum, a lobby for Indigenous growers in South Africa, tells Cannabis Culture.
“The president of South Africa ultimately chose to bite the bullet and speak out the open secret that – cannabis cultivation is occurring even if his law enforcement officerstry to suppress poorer Black cultivators.”
Major climbdown
This is a major climb-down by South Africa on hemp and cannabis, adds Matla. Though cannabis cultivation was okayed in 2018 in South Africa, fury has grown that the so-called legalization has opened the door to wealthy Western corporations to get an unassailable grab at cultivation, yet thousands of poorer Black residents of South Africa who have farmed cannabis in the last 100 years remain restricted. Cannabis Culture has reported on everything from South Africa’s medical cannabis regulator doling out licenses at snail pace; levying high prices for licenses applications; Western corporate firms capturing most of the available cannabis cultivation licenses at the expense of Indigenous growers; police illegally smashing equipment in home greenhouses and countless South Africans seeing their career and immigration prospects throttled by years’ old cannabis possession ‘offenses.’
Yesterday’s relaxation words by the president changed everything, says O’brien Nhachi, a leading environmentalist and climate campaigner in southern Africa: “My suspicion is that the president advisors looked him into the eye and told him two stern facts: the delay on loosening cannabis laws will see fast-thinking neighboring countries leap-frogging South Africa in revenues and domestic supply chains growth, and secondly, there’s someday going to be a chaotic ‘cannabis revolution’ when the disadvantaged Indigenous growers start to defy restrictionist rules.”
Running out of options
For, Matla the industry player, the president’s warm words towards cannabis in his state of the nation address is born out of desperation. First South Africa’s economy is on its knees and its joblessness rate is the highest in the world. “The government is running out of social welfare money to hand out to millions monthly. Allowing the very poor to start thinking of small commercial cannabis gardens could take off the heat from the public purse and allow small-scale cannabis trades occur in the communities especially where the Black poor live.”
He thinks the South Africa president’s seemingly warm remarks on cannabis in February will likely see police increasingly turn a blind to small-time commercial growers who may not have licenses but can demonstrate that the crop they are cultivating is geared towards earnings for household finances and food security. “I must caution, it won’t be overnight, but I expect police to start being lenient towards needy growers,” Matla tells Bonno
‘No time to waste.’
The South Africa president’s warm words ought to be matched by robust action at state level, ideally, independent economist, Carter Mavhiza. “If I was the president, I would create a cannabis tsar in the South Africa agriculture ministry and say if you are growing cannabis for commercial trading and don’t have a license, there is a blanket amnesty for you if you come out and apply for a no-fee license and promise to keep proper accounting books.”
In South Africa – it is possible to match the president’s recent warm words towards cannabis only if partisan interests are cleared out of the way, says Matla the industry player. Chief among them, he says, are large corporate cannabis firms which he says would love to maintain market dominance for a while as the industry bubbles to growth and would not like to see a competition for land and labor from thousands of small-time growers doing the trade under the table.
“The large corporate growers in South Africa know that land, water and labor in cannabis will feel unease as interest in cannabis continues to grow. Hence, my suspicion from chats with other industry leaders is they (wealthy corporations) are happy for the government to charge high license fees for a while and keep small Indigenous competitors at bay, perhaps for the next ten years.”
