The Democratic Alliance is taking on Gauteng’s Agriculture Department for wasting money on an ill-advised cannabis project at Tarlton near Mogale City. The Silver Tree project received R20 million funding to train cannabis farmers, but the money appears to have vanished without being spent on its intended purpose.
2 May 2025 at 11:30:00
Cannabiz Africa
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has conducted an ‘oversight inspection on a cannabis farm in the Mogale district that's been funded to the tune of R20 million by the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD). The funding was to train local farmers to grow cannabis but the DA's Bronwynn Engelbrecht, who is the shadow MEC for Agriculture, said “there was nothing to show for it”.
In a statement issued on 2 May 2025, the DA's Bronwynn Engelbrecht said there was no evidence of activity at the 13,2 ha farm at Tarlton on the West Rand and that the matter would be taken up with the MEC responsible, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa (pictured here).
“No farmers were receiving cannabis farming training" said Engelbrecht.'
What happened to the money meant to empower farmers?” she asked.
The oversight visit at the end of April 2025, was in response to a written reply to the DA’s questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, in which GDARD's Vuyiswa Ramokgopa said that the Silvertree Tree cannabis project funding included the training of 200 farmers.
Silver Tree Group (Pty) Ltd is a South African registered company which says it is involved in the cultivating, processing, manufacturing and distributing cannabis and cannabis-related products. It's registered director is Simphiwe Yako, a former archivist at the Mayibuye Centre, and according to
The project was funded through the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) and the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was signed for the 2023/2024 financial year.
Engelbrecht says “this project that meant to empower farmers in cannabis farming had the potential to grow the economy and create jobs in the agriculture sector. This fastest globally growing industry will contribute to the health and textile sector.”
She said the DA will table follow-up questions to MEC Ramokgopa to ascertain what happened to the money and the project.
She added that a DA Gauteng-led provincial government would immediately do an audit of all agriculture projects in the province that receive funding through the CASP. “Where it is found that they do not adhere to the terms of the MOA, remedial action will be taken” she said.
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