Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (DTIC) Minister Parks Tau (pictured above) is now in charge of the Cannabis Master Plan (CMP).

He’s been appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to chair the Plan’s Inter-Ministerial Commmittee (IMC), which is made up of the Ministers of Agriculture, Health, Justice, and Correctional Services. His job is to get them aligned first on cannabis policy and then legislation.

Tau’s appointment emerged in correspondence between Presidential cannabis advisor Garth Strachan and Fields of Green for All’s Myrtle Clarke. Clarke had written to the Presidency on 17 October 2024 raising her concerns about the lack of feedback from Government’s side on the Cannabis Master Plan. This followed news that the CMP's Steerco, which is made of up of non-government stakeholders, had met privately without providing feedback to other cannabis stakeholders.

READ:Cannabis Master Plan ‘Secrecy’ Under Fire As Hand-picked Steering Committee Meets Privately and Doesn’t Share Agenda

Strachan wrote back on 1 November 2024, acknowledging that progress had been slow, but that this should change as the DTIC was now responsible for driving most cannabis issues.

“You will no doubt appreciate that progress in the Cannabis Masterplan process, involving the many policy, regulatory reform,  intra-government institutional and economic development challenges, has been less than optimal” he said.

Strachan said more progress could be expected with Tau’s appointment. He said the Minister would see a reconstitution of “the institutional arrangements” to empower the Cannabis Master Plan, which is founded on nine regulatory pillars. One of these arrangements is likely to include the Ministry of Social Development on the IMC. Strangely, somehow, to date it has been bypassed for a seat at the Ministerial table even though its input is critical to cannabis reform.

Strachan said Government was still  processing the “complex regulations” for the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act (CfPPA) and the “consequent amendments to other legislation including the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act and the Plant Act.

Strachan says that the DTIC, as the lead department, “will aim to secure stronger progress with respect to the regulatory reform; economic sector development and the collaborative, reciprocal relationships between government and its social partners – labour, business and community representatives.”.

Strachan said it was up the Plan’s social partners to report back on progress to the cannabis community:  Whilst government is not in a position to dictate to its social partners what report-back mechanisms each should employ we hope that such ‘’report back’’ does take place (mindful of the resource constraints that social partners face in infant industry development.).

Although the Department of Agriculture is officially in charge of the CMP, which eventually foresees the development of a regulated, commercial domestic adult-use market, for now its job appears restricted to administering the issuing of hemp permits and providing support for rural cannabis farmers.

The DTIC has already begun supporting certain cannabis initiatives such as that of the Okhahlamba Municipality in the KwaZulu Natal Drakensberg.

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