GREEN ECONOMY will benefit the country.
This was an affirmation by President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa during his 6th State of the Nation Address at the Cape Town City Hall, Cape Town last night.
The President promised as Government will consider on how to ease policies and regulations to grow cannabis sector as part of the job creation strategy in the country.
“The hemp and cannabis sector has the potential to create more than 130,000 new jobs. We are therefore streamlining the regulatory processes so that the hemp and cannabis sector can thrive like it is in other countries such as Lesotho,” Ramaphosa said.
South Africans have already been farming the products, saying smoking the plants would soon not be the only way they are used, he said.
“Our people in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere are ready to farm with this age-old commodity and bring it to market in new and innovative forms. We will review the policy and regulatory framework for industrial hemp and cannabis to realise the huge potential for investment and job creation.”
In 2018, South Africa’s top court decriminalised the private and personal use of cannabis in a landmark case that pitted law enforcement agencies against advocates of the plant, known locally as dagga.
How much of the products can be grown, carried and cultivated sits with the Cannabis for Private Use Bill, which is yet to be passed by Parliament.
The World Health Organisation, says South Africa is the third-largest illegal cannabis producer in the world already, with about 2,500 tons grown a year.
This is the green economy that would grow the much needed jobs, although it’s a known fact Gvt is not a job creator but allows policies and regulations for private sector to thrive in creating employment.
President Ramaphosa also extended the much needed Social Grant of R350 until March 2023.
Albeit he did not utter a word on crime that is on a precipice (much to the county’s disdain), he did acknowledge the report by panel of experts on the rioting and looting that took place in 2021 that fingered the whole cabinet for ‘oversight’.
He did not mention bail-out for troubled SOEs, but said new projects are on the way to assist Eskom.
Ramaphosa also mentioned the Bridges Development Strategy that would be carried out in all provinces and road maintenance that would help stimulate economic activity in rural areas.
Ed Note. A business partner of mine has for years’ been struggling to acquire permit to cultivate cannabis in SA, and the only option left was for him to cross-border in Lesotho to obtain it
Image (A Sign of smoking it. Pres Cyril Ramaphosa says cannabis is part of green economy).
