South Africa occupies a unique position in the rapidly developing legal cannabis market. With a government that seeks to legalize and develop the cannabis and hemp sectors as a sunshine industry and a private and community sector desperately willing to engage, this should be a match made in heaven. Yet the country finds itself in a regulatory quagmire with market forces, both legal and illegal, now in control. Cannabiz Africa is your front row on the torturous journey towards a regulated adult-use commercial market.
Two Rastafarian bio-tech researchers have partnered with the Vaal University of Technology to offer scientific support services to cannabis and hemp farmers in southern Gauteng. Their company, Kannelix, seeks to incorporate modern scientific resources to unlock commercial opportunities for indigenous growers.
The Cannabis Crisis Coalition has put forward seven key steps that Government needs to urgently take to stop cannabis reform from spiralling into further criminality and confusion. The key demand in an open letter to the Presidency, is to align government departments around a coherent policy.
Sign up here to an Open Letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Ministers responsible for Justice, Health, Police, Trade, Industry and Competition, Small Business, Social Development and Agriculture as initiated by the Cannabis Crisis Coalition.
Cannabiz Africa’s new webinar brand, CannaWeb Africa, will host a crisis summit for cannabis stakeholders on Monday 2 November 2026. This is a platform for the recently-formed Cannabis Crisis Committee, formed in response to the apparent collapse of all regulatory pathways of accessing the plant.
This is the directive issued by SAPS Gauteng, and leaked anonymously to media.
The South African cannabis sector has been shaken by the publication of a leaked document from the Gauteng SAPS commissioner ordering a mass clampdown on illegal cannabis retailers. FGFA’s Myrtle Clarke advises operators not to over-react and ‘wait and see’ as the directive is riddled with legal inconsistencies.
Silverleaf Investments’ Darryl Weisz says it’s easy to blame government for failing to regulate cannabis, but adds the private sector also needs to scrutinize its own behaviour. He says cannabis operators owe it to their investors to ensure their businesses are above board.
Paarl-based Afriplex has repositioned itself as an Afrobotanical extraction specialist and is launching its new flagship product, KannaSpectrum, in Las Vegas this week. KannaSpectrum is Afriplex’s standardized extract from the indigenous kanna plant and is aimed at processors of products that promote calmness and wellbeing.
Tenacity, teamwork and time is what it’s taken Polish cannabis veteran Kim Praizovic to get her South African operation, CannaGrit going. After years of planning, cultivation has begun at her Cape Town-based GMP cannabis facility focused on EU-aligned pharmaceutical production.
Green Route Hemp founder Mahlatsi Mohlala’s business model is to teach farmers how to grow hemp properly and then buy their crops from them. Around 50 farmers have participated in the innovative Gauteng-based entrepreneur’s ‘Train to Buy’ programme which is backed by AgriSETA.
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