Gareth Prince has expressed his frustration at yet another delay in the urgent High Court application by himself, the Rastafarian National Council and a group of small-scale farmers, to halt cannabis arrests.
He told Cannabiz Africa that even though he’d filed his heads of argument on Friday, 5 June 2026 at 15h00 ahead of the court hearing on Monday, 8 June, the Judge’s registrar had left work at lunch-time and there was no-one else at the Cape Town court to process the paperwork.
“Serving Heads of Argument on the Judge and the respondents the Friday before the hearing on the next Monday is not uncommon in urgent matters” Prince told Cannabiz Africa on 10 June 2026.
“However unbeknownst to me, Judge’s registrar’s leave court at lunch time on Fridays; therefore the Judge’s registrar’s could not receive the papers, when I arrived at 3pm, but it was send to her electronically soon thereafter.
“On 8 June the High Court decided that the matter could not proceed because the Judge and the respondents argued that they did not have sight of my heads of argument timeously and because the court file haven’t been indexed and paginated” continued Prince.
Prince said he protested to the Judge President, and argued that the matter was urgent and that court filing procedures should not hold back the application from going ahead.
“The Court however choose to make more of the procedural shortcomings, and elevated these concerns over the substantive issues raised by the applicants. I argued that it cannot be that the voice of justice is only heard if she comes in a certain form, because justice is not a respecter of person neither is she a respecter of form” said Prince.
The Court said it respected that the matter was urgent, but that other obstacles were the imminent departure of the Acting Judge in the matter, whose term expires on 19 June 2026. Then there was the upcoming court recess – the Judge President said she could not appoint a different judge for the recess period and said that the earliest date available date to all counsel was 31 July 2026.
“Despite the applicant stating that this in effect mean that another 15 000 people would suffer the consequences of unlawful arrest, the Judge President elevated her court’s procedure above that of the guaranteed rights of the dagga community” said Prince.
“Despite me arguing that her ruling effectively meant that she rejected our urgency arguments the JP insisted that she hasn’t prejudged the issue and that the matter remain in the urgent court. The JP pointed out that matters on the ordinary roll takes 8-12 months to make it to court, but this matter was expedited.”
Prince said he’s taking the delay in his stride and said he would use the next six weeks to bolster his supporting arguments.
“It’s aluta continua for the dagga community, and we will take this opportunity to strengthen our arguments and our case, by making sure we have more supporting affidavits from especially small farmers and members of the Rastafari and dagga community. “
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