South Africa Is Studying Cannabis Business Development Opportunities
South Africa officially approved a national adult-use cannabis legalization measure in 2024, placing the African nation on an exciting and ambitious path towards taking its rightful place as a continental and international cannabis industry leader.
In 2018, South Africa’s Constitutional Court rendered a landmark legal decision that struck down the nation’s cannabis prohibition law as it pertained to private individual cannabis activity. Part of the decision tasked South Africa’s lawmakers with drafting new laws within two years to reflect the order. It obviously took longer for the Court’s decision to be codified.
A parliamentary question was recently posed in South Africa, which inquired about what steps the Minister of Small Business Development is taking to “support and promote small- and medium-sized enterprises in the hemp and cannabis sectors.”
The question, directed to Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, asked about:
- Timelines
- Budget allocations
- What regulations and laws has her department identified that “impede the development of a hemp and cannabis sector”
- Steps taken to assist SMEs in navigating “red tape”
- Steps taken to “ensure that the sector is an enabling space” for rural, black, and women-owned businesses
Below are excerpts from the Minister’s reply, which can be read in its entirety at this link here:
“The Department has conducted research on the value chain relating to hemp and cannabis to assist the Department in understanding the areas in the primary, secondary and tertiary economic functions which MSMEs may find opportunities for creation of small businesses to generate income, create jobs and play a meaningful role in the sector and related economic functional support activities. The study was conducted internally and as such, there were no costs associated with conducting the study.” Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams wrote.
“Currently, the Department is assessing cannabis projects in three provinces (KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape) as a start for provision of support on infrastructure requirements. The process of site visits is underway and projects in KwaZulu-Natal have already been visited for verification, Northern Cape is to follow in this first quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, and Eastern Cape will follow thereafter.” she also wrote.
“The Department has taken a deliberate stance to approach issues of economic participation and inclusion through mainstreaming using the national targets as a benchmark in the implementation of its support interventions and programmes. This is mainly reflected in the performance reports that measures the extend to which rural, township, black, women, youth and the disabled are part of the MSMEs supported from the financial and non-financial support provided on an ongoing basis. The normal structure of reporting addresses these elements under all programmes. In instances where any of the elements is reflected in the reports, reasons for deviation on lack of data in reports submitted are required to justify the omission.” the Minster concluded in her reply to the inquiry.
A recent market projection for South Africa’s emerging legal cannabis industry estimated that the nation’s draft National Cannabis Master Plan, once fully implemented, would create over 100,000 jobs and add approximately R30 billion to South Africa’s economy.
