The South African government has been mulling over how to treat cannabis for a very long time. Cabinet decided in July 2019 that the country needed a strategy to commercialise cannabis to increase economic growth, create jobs, and alleviate poverty. It then produced an exhaustive draft National Cannabis Master Plan, which said, among other things, that a formalised local industry could be worth around R28bn and create between 10 000 and 25 000 jobs.

Separately, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act into law on 28 May 2024. This lets people cultivate and consume dagga, but they can’t sell it. It’s now thought that a Bill will be brought to Parliament sometime this year, and will most probably be tabled by Parks Tau, minister of Trade, Industry and Competition. One of the reasons for the glacial pace of the policy is that at least 10 government departments, among them Justice and Constitutional Development, and Agriculture, have been involved, as well as conflicting opinions about what should be contained in the final version of the Bill.