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.
The latest chapter in the 40-year old journey of world famous Dutch cannabis cultivation magazine Soft Secrets, begins in South Africa. The widely-distributed grower magazine launched its first local edition in February 2026, signalling ever closer connections between South Africa and the international cannabis community.
South African police find themselves in an extraordinarily difficult position as long as the daily reality of cannabis policing is at odds with the legislation they are meant to enforce. H3’s Charl Botha writes that what should be uniform has become situational and this will continue to throw up legal complications until the law itself passes the reality test.
Experienced growers, responsible pharmacists and quality controllers are the senior jobs most in demand in South Africa’s fledgling cannabis industry. That’s the view of Lourie Campher, co-founder of Ninth Wave, the continent’s first cannabis job placement agency, who says the key to getting ahead is skills specialization.
EFF MP Babalwa Mathulelwa (pictured here) has vowed to track down the missing Mpondoland millions that slipped through the accountability net and was disbursed to Eastern Cape cannabis farmers in 2025. The R11 million earmarked for Mpondoland cannabis appears to have been spent there, but the question is by whom?
The Okhlahlamba Muncipality has not been able to get its multi-million rand cannabis hub off the ground and financial control of the project has been handed over to the CSIR. This is according to the KZN Treasury in a budget appropriation vote which approved R5 million for the project in the Bergville area of the Drakensberg.
The increasing availability of cannabis and the consequences of the Covid pandemic, have seen the number of people seeking treatment for cannabis rising. That’s according to Prof Nadine Harker (pictured here), who’s recently-published study found that demand for cannabis treatment shot up by 23% between 2020 and 2023.
Four Mpumalanga police officers have been charged after trying to sell cannabis seized in a vehicle at a guest house in Carolina. They were arrested by their SAPS colleagues after trying to exchange part of the haul for cash at a second-hand car dealership.
The Democratic Alliance has called on SAPS and SARS to investigate whether Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie and his PA party are being bankrolled by the underworld. The DA says this follows the disturbing allegations during the Madlanga Commission linking the PA to organized crime and drug trafficking, allegations which the PA has denied.
SAPS appears to be intensifying its clampdown on illicit cannabis distributors and narcotics traffickers with a noticeable uptick in arrests and seizures across the country during the course of March 2026.
Cannabis Expo CEO Silas Howarth says the cannabis industry has gained significant momentum in the past 12 months. He says that last year’s frustration and uncertainty has given way to a new optimism now that government is actively tackling the regulatory bottlenecks to growth.
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