Political parties are now climbing into the hemp foodstuff ban saga as the ministers of Health and the DTIC retreat behind a wall of silence. The Presidency too has chosen not to comment on the issue which has exposed a deep rift at cabinet level over cannabis policy and has effectively scuppered the Cannabis Master Plan.

Two weeks after the ban there has been no official comment at ministerial level, while less senior officials have put out contradictory statements on the reasons behind the ban. The Health Department’s DDG, Dr Anban Pillay has been fielding most of the media questions, telling News 24 that the ban was part of a "grand plan" to integrate SAHPRA into the regulatory framework, ensuring stringent quality and safety measures. 

He said that the gazetted regulations were the first step of the legislation to ensure the quality and the safety of food containing cannabis.

"The intention [as a] whole is to exclude cannabis from being regulated through the food regulations and we want this to be done through the legislation that SAHPRA manages," Dr Pillay said.

However, observers have pointed out that hemp falls outside of SAHPRA’s ambit so his statement does not make sense.

The DA’s Health spokesperson Michéle Clarke called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to over-ride his Health Minister and reverse the ban, while GOOD’s Brett Herron has accused Dr Motsoaledi of ‘smoking his socks’ in coming to his controversial decision.

Clarke said the Health Minister had disregarded public consultation and the voices of businesses and health experts.

She told Business Day: "Instead of imposing restrictions, the government should support the hemp industry, which has the potential to boost jobs, improve public health, and drive sustainable economic development. The ban on cannabis-based foodstuffs smacks of the same reckless disregard for sound policy, stifling an industry that could significantly contribute to the economic security of the country," she said.

"The DA is concerned by the process that led to this ban. Minister Motsoaledi has bypassed the required public consultation process, relying on a dubious claim that the regulations were needed without delay. 

GOOD party secretary-general Brett Herron said the health minister was “smoking his socks”.

“It borders on lunacy for the president to trumpet the future of an industry (hemp), only for one of his ministers to ban its products, which have been sold in mainstream stores for years,” he said in a statement.

Herron urged the president to overturn Motsoaledi’s ban and speed up work on the Cannabis Master Plan to ensure the sector was appropriately regulated.

“The lack of a policy framework to organise and regulate SA’s cannabis industry since the Constitutional Court decriminalised its use, but not its sale, seven years ago is placing the future of the burgeoning industry and up to a million people’s livelihoods at risk,” he said.

“Users of edible cannabis products have the right to know that what they consume is safe, which requires regulations, not a ban,”

The ban has cast a spotlight on Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau who earlier this month painted a rosy picture of the Master Plan, which effectively then collapsed on 7 March 2025 with the cannabis in foodstuffs ban.

IOL reported on 19 March 2024 that in response to questions by DA MP Toby Chance earlier this month, Tau said a draft Hemp and Cannabis Value Chain Master Plan discussion document would be finalised by the end of the 2025/26 fiscal year, and subsequently presented for stakeholder engagement to ensure co-creation and alignment moving forward.

Tau said this was a collaboration of the Department of Agriculture (DoA) with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) to commission critical research focused on –

•  Crop breeding for Hemp and Cannabis;

• Utilisation of fibre and other by-products;

• Plant disease surveillance and mitigation strategies;

• Indigenous germplasm collection (to preserve genetic diversity);

• and the Development of a sustainable seed system for these crops.

While Tau was responding in Parliament, Dr Motsoaledi had already signed off on the controversial hemp foodstuff ban but had not informed the DTIC, even though Tau is chairman of the inter-ministerial cabinet committee on cannabis, and in this regard was higher up the management chain. And he had not informed President Ramaphosa that had already decided on the ban ahead of the 6 February 2025 SONA.

A source close to Government says there have been contact behind the door meetings between the DoH and the DTIC and the Presidency has been pulled into the loop to help fix the blunder. He says the Health Minister’s job is not on the line: “He’s too close to the President and any action against him would be interpreted as an ANC backdown on the NHI (National Health Insurance scheme), which is  politically unacceptable. They are going to rather find a way for him to save face".

“Instead they’re working on a plan to ‘clarify’ the ban by removing hemp out of the equation. I don’t think the Ministers want to say anything until they’ve got consensus, but I think we can expect a statement soon.”

Meanwhile the ban has already caused widespread damage in the hemp industry and several legal challenges are believed to be underway with claims for damages running into tens of millions of rands of damages.

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