Thousands of people are expected to attend this year’s Cannabis Expo in Gauteng to get a taste of what Cannabis 2025 has to offer the consumer at all manner of levels. It’s also going to see a gathering of the sector’s heavyweights at the Cheeba Cannabis & Hemp Industry Summit, which is taking place alongside the Expo, making the Sandton Convention Centre the place to be for anyone interested in cannabis. 

It will also be a time of self-reflection for the sector and an opportunity for stakeholders to engage with government officials on the prospects of commercialization in the year ahead.

Headline speaker for the Summit has been confirmed as Garth Strachan, Technical Consultant to the PMO in the President’s Office on Cannbais and Hemp.  He is to talk on 'The Challenges of Cannabis and Hemp Sector', a  key thread that will be running through the Summit.

Cheeba have pulled off something of a coup in partnership with the International Cannabis Symposium who booked Calfornian cannabis veteran, Steve DeAngelo. DeAngelo, who’s been dubbed ‘the father of the legal cannabis industry’ in the US, is also the author of a manifesto highlighting wellness in cannabis reform and was instrumental in establishing the Last Prisoner Project aimed at getting the release of people incarcerated for cannabis offences.

He will be joining the Summit by video-link on Friday, 30 May 2025.

The Cheeba Summit comes at a time when stakeholders have found a new momentum following the debacle over the cannabis foodstuffs ban and its rapid reversal earlier this year. 

The controversy exposed the massive regulatory gap there is in the South African cannabis landscape and the Summit will provide a forum for discussion on what private stakeholders can do to shift the status quo.

Cheeba’s Trenton Birch says stakeholder pressure has been important to make the private sector’s voice heard in the formation of regulations, but stresses that the main aim of the Summit is to get people talking.

“I think right now the most important thing is to create dialogue and momentum.  Yes, we need stakeholder initiatives, but what we need is to be united in movement towards legislation and there will be a narrative about legislation taking too long”.

Birch says although stakeholders have been extremely critical of Government’s inability to craft a set of regulations for the local market, he says the emphasis of the Summit will be to develop the momentum in a positive way.

“We do not intend this event to get bogged down in the negative.  We have an industry, we are building supply chain infrastructure and knowledge and we just need to get on with it.  Government just needs to catch up.”

Birch says another focus of the Summit will be on the quality and consistency of cannabis and hemp for market offtake

Book your tickets for the Cheeba Cannabis and Hemp Industry Summit here