Legal compliance consultant Charl Botha says his organization is to compile a dossier of data to try and identify the individuals behind the “systemic and coordinated nature of the ongoing regulatory paralysis.
He says he will make the information available to the Public Protector, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA).
Botha says that six years after the landmark Constitutional Court judgment legalizing personal consumption, and four years into the National Cannabis Master Plan, Parliament “has yet to establish an operational framework for equitable licensing, commercial access, or protection of legacy growers, traditional healers, and small-scale producers.”
Cannabis Reform is Criminalizing Citizens and Rewarding Criminals
“The result is a state-enabled vacuum, one that benefits illicit operators, corrupt intermediaries, and politically connected actors, while criminalising the citizens who sustained the cannabis economy for generations” says Botha, who has written to the President and key cabinet ministers signalling his intent.
He says the failure to implement functional regulation has had measurable social, economic, and constitutional consequences. This includes
· Ongoing criminalisation and harassment: Thousands of small growers, healers, and wellness retailers face SAPS raids and arbitrary enforcement, often coerced into paying informal “compliance” or “protection” fees, estimated in some areas at R5,000 per month, to avoid arrest;
· Selective policing: High-profile raids costing up to R250,000 per operation continue to target micro-operators, while industrial-scale illicit processors and politically shielded entities operate with impunity;
· Regulatory capture: Fronting entities and “research permits” issued to politically connected individuals dominate provincial supply chains, excluding lawful participants;
· Economic exclusion: Traditional healers, small farmers, and rural cooperatives remain locked out of participation in the legal economy, perpetuating historical inequality.
Government is in Breach of its Own Laws
Botha writes: “The ongoing vacuum in cannabis regulation, despite explicit judicial instruction and executive promises, amounts to a breach of multiple constitutional provisions, including:
• Section 9 (Equality Clause): Discriminatory exclusion of rural and legacy participants
from lawful participation in the cannabis economy.
• Section 22 (Freedom of Trade, Occupation, and Profession): Unreasonable
administrative and legislative delays restricting lawful economic activity.
• Section 195 (Public Administration): Failure to uphold the basic values of transparency,
accountability, and responsiveness in implementing cannabis reform.
“Furthermore, the continued arrest, prosecution, and asset seizure of individuals involved in lawful or transitional cannabis activities, in the absence of a coherent and enforceable regulatory framework, may constitute an abuse of power and unlawful administrative discretion, exposing the State to constitutional and civil liability”.
Who are the Current Beneficiaries of Cannabis Reform?
Botha says there is both a legal and ethical imperative to ask who benefits from the delays in implementing cannabis reform.
“The pattern is clear” says Botha:
• Organised crime syndicates have consolidated control over unregulated production and distribution networks.
• Corrupt enforcement officials profit from informal “compliance” payments and selective prosecution.
• Politically connected actors position themselves for monopolistic control upon eventual legalisation.
• Consultants and intermediaries extract excessive fees from excluded farmers and small operators under the pretext of “future compliance readiness.”
Botha says the “ecosystem of delay, discretion, and distortion” perpetuates inequality, undermines rural livelihoods, and is not transparent in the way that evidence-based governance should be.
What Should Be Done?
“The continued legislative vacuum around cannabis is not a technical delay — it is a policy of exclusion, sustained by those who benefit from confusion, corruption, and silence” says Botha, who calls for the relevant authorities to:
· Publish a full, transparent list of all current and pending cannabis and hemp permit holders within 30 days;
· Institute a moratorium on all cannabis-related arrests and prosecutions for non-violent, private-use, and small-scale commercial cases until the Cannabis Bill is operational.
· Establish an independent regulatory task team, inclusive of civil society, legal experts, and traditional representatives, to oversee equitable transition and enforcement integrity;
· Convene public hearings within 60 days to investigate the causes of the six-year delay,
· identify responsible parties, and chart a lawful pathway to inclusion. Failure to act will further entrench economic exclusion, compromise the credibility of the justice system, and perpetuate unconstitutional harm.”
Botha says H3 Legal Solutions (Pty) Ltd, acting in its capacity as a legal advocacy and compliance organisation representing excluded cannabis and hemp stakeholders, “hereby places on public record its deep concern regarding the deliberate, systemic, and extended delay in implementing fair, transparent, and constitutionally compliant cannabis regulation in South Africa.”
If you would like to contact Charl Botha or assist in the compiling of the dossier, you can get hold of him at:
H3 LEGAL SOLUTIONS Cannabis Regulatory Advocacy & Compliance Advisory
Email: charl@h3legal.co.za
https://www.h3legal.co.za/
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