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.
Botswana’s Hemp Impact Conference went further than the creation of a foundation for the country’s hemp sector, it was also the first tangible development of southern African cross-frontier collaboration in building a regional industrial cannabis economy.
Labat Africa has until 30 September 2025 to publish its most recent financial results or its shares may be suspended. This warning came from the JSE as questions persist in the market as to how Labat’s subisidiary, CannAfrica, can legally justify its retail cannabis sales on the back of a SAHPRA research license.
The DTIC says the cannabis commercialization policy will be open for public comment only in April 2026 after Cabinet has signed off on it. DTIC spokesman Bongani Lukhele anticipates that after this a final commercialization bill will be presented to Parliament to sign into law in April 2027.
Labat issued a cautionary six weeks ago advising shareholders that it was looking to cash in on certain assets. Market talk following a reissue of that cautionary, is that the company is offloading its cannabis interests which are deemed ‘high risk’ .
The Department of Higher Education and Training has broken ground on an R80 million agricultural centre at Ntabankulu in the Eastern Cape that will serve also serve as a cannabis hub. The facility is being funded by the Wholesale and Retail Sector Education Training Authority (W&RSETA), as part of Government’s drive to include Mpondoland’s legacy growers in the cannabis value chain .
It’s often been said that the cannabis industry should be regulated in the same way that the tobacco industry is. Given what’s in the Tobacco Bill which is before Parliament, this would be a very, very bad idea. The Free Market Foundation says the Bill reflects the State’s accelerating ‘command and control’ approach that has little to do with consumer protection.
Cannabis legal strategist Charl Botha has written to the President to urgently reinforce the moratorium on cannabis arrests following the death of a Cape Town Rastafarian leader during a police incident. He has requested the new Police Minister take oversight action and that the SAPS officers involved be held accountable.
Initial SAPS reports on the death of Tanzanian Rasta Isakwisa Mwamassage say he died in hospital after being taken into custody. However, social media footage of the incident tells a different story and appears to show him being strangled in his shop before police took his body away.
The death of respected Rastafarian, Ras Isa (pictured here), during a ‘search and seizure’ operation in Cape Town last week has sparked outrage at the alleged police brutality, which was captured on social media. Police say the incident is under investigation and that action will be taken against the officers involved if they are found guilty of the allegation that they strangled the victim.
The arrest of a 47 year old lawyer for carrying ‘bags of dagga’ into Pinetown Magistrates Court has led to the DA to call for an urgent investigation into the state of courts in KwaZulu Natal.
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