Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi pulled out of the Cheeba-organized ‘What the Hemp 2.0?’ webinar on 18 March 2025 at the last moment and instead sent senior Health Department officials to meet disgruntled stakeholders following his recent sudden ban on hemp foodstuffs. They say hemp industry concerns will be addressed but offered no clear rationale behind the blanket ban.

Dr Mostoaledi sent the Health Department’s (DoH) Deputy Director General, Dr Anban Pillay (pictured above), and Director of Food, Penny Campbell, to explain to over 900 cannabis industry stakeholders the reasons behind the ban on hemp foodstuffs and what the process would be going forward.

Dr Pillay is SAHPRA’s main point of contact with the DoH, and the man who famously told Parliament a few years ago that cannabis had no nutritional value (Editors note: Dr Pillay is still believed to be a person of interest for his role in the Digital Vibes scandal after serving a three month suspension without salary for flouting departmental guidelines because of his involvement).

Dr Pillay let Campbell do most of the talking.  She floundered through an explanation that the ban was all about labelling and part of a regulatory process that was centred around consumer safety.

Asked by webinar moderator, Cheeba Africa’s Trenton Birch, to explain the ban and the rationale behind it, Campbell replied: “What we have done is prohibited anyone from calling either what has THC or CBD content, or even no content, from being called a foodstuff unless there is compliance with our labelling regulations and other health and safety regulations, and only then can it be construed as a foodstuff.

“The reason for this is because SAHPRA updated the medicines schedule and it has always been classified that anything with a CBD level of less than 0,075 mg would be a schedule zero product if it’s for ingestion, and only if the DoH approves it under the Foodstuffs Act then does it become a food.

“So to ensure that everybody out there fully understands, that when something is not a medicine or a health product, it doesn’t mean it becomes a foodstuff. So that was the rationale behind the ban…no not the ban, I mean prohibition”.

Dr Pillay added: “If you look at a number of markets globally where cannabis is allowed to be sold as food there is a regulatory system….so the intention is not to ban them but to make sure that the contents of those products are acceptable, they’re safe, kept from children etc., and so this is a process obviously.”

“But they are banned” responded Birch “I understand that people with hemp products have to legally remove them from their shelves; that’s very much against international trends; why so much overreach on the hemp side? We understand that THC is complicated, but why hemp?”

“It depends on how you are marketing your product” replied Campbell.

“If you are complying to the foodstuff regulations and your product has no THC and no CBD, then there should be no reference on the product to anything such as THC or CBD, or even the cannabis plant, because then you are misleading the consumer; The Foodstuff Act covers that the consumer who must not be misled by false or inaccurate description of what the product is.

“So if a product is wanting to be termed a foodstuff, then it needs to be compliant with our regulations in terms of that”.

Birch persevered: “But why hemp? There seems to be no logical reason to ban hemp. There are about 1 500 farmers with hemp permits out there and the biggest opportunity for them is to cultivate hemp for food because it’s a low tech application.

“Essentially what you’ve done is cut the legs out from under the farmers and told them they can cultivate hemp but you’ve completely destroyed the market. I still don’t understand the rationale behind this blanket ban and I’d also like to know how you went about this; the industry wasn’t consulted, there was no dialogue, and it seems that there was over-reach here, whether that’s driven by paranoia or fear, we don’t know, but we’d really just like to know why it was a blanket ban and why it happened so fast and furiously?”

Campbell responded calmly: “I think it’s important to mention that these hemp products and how they are marketed; they are marketed as health products, hence we have not banned them and said nobody must sell them; all that we’ve said is that you cannot call it a foodstuff, meaning that the environmental health practitioners at municipality level who enforce the Foodstuffs Act, have not had oversight of these products, whether they’ve been imported or manufactured locally”.

Birch was clearly having difficulty with her answer.  “But why is hemp not considered a foodstuff?” he asked, “it has more protein than meat, it is non-psychoactive provided it’s below the accepted THC levels, so why is it not a foodstuff? That’s completely illogical?”

“It can be considered a foodstuff if it complies with the regulations published under the Foodstuffs Act” said Campbell.

“But you have banned it in food, it’s just been a blanket ban” said Birch.

“Yes, because the current market of products do not comply with the labelling regulations and we are still in the process of clarifying the regulatory landscape for hemp” replied Campbell.

“And if we are using hemp, that is the varieties of Hemp 1 and 2 (Editors note: SA1 and SA2 are local hemp varietals registered by the Agriculture Department), which have always been available in this country to be industrialized; they were industrialized for the fibre content that they provide, so whether or not the current hemp seeds provide the nutritional value we have not seen the evidence as yet. We have ….”

“I’m sorry, but you have not seen the evidence yet?” interrupted Birch with incredulity. “

Sorry, but you are completely contradicting international evidence as to the value of hemp as a human food, as a protein source, so I’m quite shocked that you would say something like that, I mean, I don’t understand the rationale. I do understand about labels, but take Woolworths for example, who do stock hemp products, they have very stringent labelling protocols; but you’ve just made a blanket ban without considering the different sides of the industry”.

He paused momentarily: “For me what it shows is an ignorance of the industry in terms of the different sectors. We know there are challenges around edibles, but to put this blanket ban on hemp foodstuffs where research across the planet shows what benefits hemp has for human beings, is completely counter-intuitive to actually looking after our continent’s and our country’s health.”

Campbell and Pillay looked at each other, before Pillay responded: “Look a number of parties have raised these issues that you are raising now with the Minister, so the Minister is looking at it, I’m sure, he’ll come up with a response to the concerns you and others have raised as well”.

Watch a recording of the Webinar What the Hemp 2.0. here.