The Haze Club’s (THC) lawyers and the Justice Department reached an out-of-court settlement last week before the scheduled Supreme Court of Appeal hearing on 19 November 2024.

The terms of the settlement are confidential and provide no answers to the million-dollar question: are South Africa’s private cannabis clubs (PCC’s) actually legal or not?

Paul-Michael Keichel (pictured above) of Cullinans and Associates is the lawyer who represents THC and its director Neil Lidell. Cannabiz Africa publisher Brett Hilton-Barber caught up with him on 19 November 2024, to find out what the THC settlement means in practice:

BHB:   What does the settlement mean for Neil and THC?

PMK   It means certainty and finality for Neil and THC.

BHB:   Is THC re-opening?

PMK:  I do not understand that THC will be re-opening.

BHB: What does this mean in terms of the Judge Slingers reserving her judgement in the previous case – does the matter go back to her for finality?

PMK: Judge Slingers did not reserve judgment. She refused THC’s High Court application to have (properly-run) clubs declared legal. That order/judgment now stands with the withdrawal of the appeal.

BHB: Where’s the Drugs Act in all of this?

PMK: Neil was originally charged in terms of the Drugs Act for operating THC. When the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act is operationalised,‘cannabis’ will be removed from the Drugs Act.

BHB: Can you say anything as to how costs were awarded?

PMK: The appeal was withdrawn on the basis of the parties agreeing to pay their own costs.

BHB: What does the agreement mean for the legal status of private cannabis clubs generally?

PMK: I cannot reveal the further terms of the agreement. The withdrawal of the appeal means that Judge Slinger’s order stands. That order declines to declare clubs as legal, but does not go so far as to declare them illegal. So, on my understanding, we remain in a state of uncertainty and conflicting interpretations of the 2018 Prince judgment.

BHB: What advice do you have to private cannabis club owners out there?

PMK: Tread carefully and do not stray beyond what your lawyers advise was enabled by the 2018 Prince judgment.