If you were arrested and convicted of possession of cannabis, you have a criminal record. Even if you never appeared in court but paid an admission of guilt fine, you may not even know that you have a criminal record.

The good news is that your criminal record can be expunged or removed completely. Expungement can give you a fresh start. No-one will ever know that you were convicted in the first place.

Expunging your criminal record means all records related to a particular criminal conviction will be removed from public view and physically destroyed or ‘sealed’.  An expunged conviction is not visible in background checks, and employers are not permitted to consider an expunged conviction when making hiring decisions.

The Cannabis for Private Purposes Act of 2024, provides for the automatic expungement of criminal records of all persons convicted of possession or use of cannabis or dealing in cannabis on the basis of presumption. Your conviction and sentence should therefore be automatically expunged by the Criminal Record Centre of the South African Police Service.

The Act goes on to say that in the event that you find that your criminal record has not been automatically expunged, you have the right to file a written application to the Director-General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development for the expungement of your criminal record. The Director-General shall, upon receipt of your application, effect the expungement by issuing you a Certificate of Expungement of your criminal record, if you meet the criteria specified in the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act.

Unfortunately however the relevant provisions of the Act are not yet in force as we wait for regulations to be promulgated. You still unfortunately have to wait 10 years after conviction to make application for expungement of your cannabis-related criminal record.

So in practice, the answer to the question “What is my status if I was convicted of cannabis possession?” is that you do have criminal record, and yes, you must make an application for expungement, which will be treated by the Department of Justice on a case-by-case basis. If successful, the Department will direct the Criminal Record Centre of SAPS to delete your conviction from the system. You can then apply for a clean Police Clearance Certificate from SAPS. 

The application normally takes at least two months to be processed by the Department of Justice. If you need a clean record urgently - to get a visa or a job - you can ask for an urgent expungement. This requires a detailed motivation with supporting documents.   

Delaney Attorneys is a cannabis-rights law firm. We have been processing the expungements of cannabis-related criminal records for the last 10 years.

Delaney Attorneys fully support #StopTheCops and Fields of Green for ALL (NPC).

You can learn how to #StopTheCops here:

https://fieldsofgreenforall.org.za/join-the-queue/

You can learn to #KnowYourRights here:

https://www.fieldsofgreenforall.org.za/general-faq-2/

For assistance with all cannabis-law related queries, please contact:

Simon Delaney at Delaney Attorneys

simon@delaney.co.za

+27 83 397 0057