Even in the crazy world of cannabis, this appointment comes from way left field. But anyway, here we go.

The President has chosen Nelson Mandela’s ‘royal poet’ - and praise singer to the likes of Gadaffi, Castro and Chavez - to one of the highest seats at South Africa’s cannabis policy-making table.

HRH Zolani Mkiva (pictured above) describes himself as a ‘highly-regarded organic intellectual’ and ‘spiritual heritage practitoner’ but he’s paid to be an ANC MP and sectretary general of Contralesa (the Council of Traditional Leaderss of South Africa).

President Ramaphosa wants him to now sing for his supper in the formulation of cannabis policy. He, along with Chief Lungelo Nokwaza (Contralesa Western-Cape Secretary General), were appointed last September to the National Cannabis Master Plan steering committee (Steerco) to represent traditional leaders.

Without having to read too much between the lines, this is Ramaphosa’s way of balancing factions within the ANC, and this is a sweetener to Contralesa, the ANC-aligned traditional leader’s organization that originated in the Eastern Cape. Contralesa is generally in favour of cannabis reform to alleviate rural poverty but has no ‘skin in the game’ so to speak.

According to the Phakisa cannabis strategy, Steerco is tasked to look at three main areas of action: regulatory change, science and innovation and business development.

With all due credit to Mkiva, named as 2023 International Man of the Year by the Hollywood and Africa Prestigious Awards (HAPAWARDS) in Los Angeles, his expertise is not really in any area related to cannabis. . 

A quick flick through his CV reveals that he was former President Nelson Mandela’s “Imbongi Yesizwe”, or Poet Laurete after performing at his 1994 presidential inauguraton.

He has a Lifetime Achievement Award in Praise Singing from the South African Traditional Music, while in 2004, he was one of the three finalists at the World Tournament of Town Criers in England. He also has among his accolades the title Zimbabwe’s Prince of Afro-Poetry, Zimbabwe, and the Sharq Toranolari Award from Uzbekistan.

Check Out Zolani Mkiva's Spotify Playlist Here.

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Mkiva’s praise singing has had international reach. He delighted dictators by putting infusing their accodales with African rhythm, and has sung the praises of the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Fidel Castro of Cuba, the late Muammar Gadaffi of Libya,  as well as the likes of Seewoosagur Rangoolam of Mauritius and former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ghanaian Kofi Annan.

He is currently manager of the Mkiva Humanitarian Foundation, which deals with rural development in under-resourced communities. He also produces music with other African artists throughout the continent and is also involved in African Regeneration and revival of moral values.

His Contralesa colleague on the Steerco Chief Nokwaza, a heavyweight ANC traditional leader and former MP from the Eastern Cape. He made headlines in 2022 by opposing the Stellenbosch Municipality for forbidding an initiation school from taking place in the winelands because of Covid. He lost.

Nokwaza has just finished his term as chairperson of the Western Cape Cultural Commission, a statutory body reporting to the provincial Sports  The WCCC is charged with policy, registering cultural councils and co-ordinating their activities – and of course determining tariffs! Fortuitously for him, as his term ended, there happened to be a vacant seat on the Cannabis Master Plan's Steerco.

The first meeting of Steerco was held on 17 September 2023.

Neither Mkiva nor Nokwaza attended. Neither did they present their apologies.

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