Brian Jaftha, the leader of the Ganja Users of Namibia (GUN) has been released from prison in Windhoek, almost two years after being incarcerated on a charge of cannabis possession.

GUN Secretary General Borro Ndungula, an advocate, has confirmed to Cannabis Africa that Jaftha has indeed been released. Ndungula was at the prison to accompany Jaftha back to freedom and home on Tuesday morning, 17 June 2025.

Jaftha’s release on parole caps an agonising interlude in Namibian cannabis activists’ long-running but not yet over campaign to force authorities to legalise cannabis.

This year began with GUN and other leading pro-cannabis organisations holding marches and petitioning the government and the United Nations to decriminalise cannabis on medicinal grounds.

In their latest action campaigning for the amendment of draconian colonial-era legislation that criminalises cannabis possession and use, the four leading pro-cannabis lobby groups in Namibia filed a joint application with the government, following an invitation by the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations for citizens to submit proposals for law reform.

Ganja Users of Namibia (GUN), Cannabis and Hemp Association of Namibia (CHAN), Medical Marijuana Association of Namibia (MMAN) and Rasta United Front (RUF) of Namibia specifically cited the Abuse of Dependence-Producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act 41 of 1971 (RSA), also known as “the Impugned Act”) as outdated and an instrument of perpetuating injustice and the human rights violations of many citizens and called for it to be repealed. The organisations have also called for the removal of cannabis from the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965 (“the Medicines Act”).

Jaftha was imprisoned in October 2023 after being found guilty of possessing less than 100 grams of cannabis valued at less than N$2 000, following his arrest in a sting operation by plainclothes police officers.

Subsequent to his arrest and conviction, his motor vehicle valued at N$160 000 was forfeited to the state, in an action that has riled cannabis campaigners who allege that asset seizures for cannabis convictions selectively prejudice cannabis users as they do not apply to other convictions including violent crimes. Critics also point out that his release on parole comes just four months to the day he began serving his two-year sentence.

While in prison, Jaftha had his dreadlocks forcibly removed by prison authorities, leading him to file a lawsuit for N$1.25-million against the state for the violation of his religious freedoms and human rights.

On 2 July 2025, Jaftha and Ndungula will be at the Windhoek High Court to hear arguments before judges in their application to have the ban on cannabis declared unconstitutional.

And as the legal wrangle continues, authorities have indicated their willingness for reform, with the government recently sending a delegation to a cannabis regulatory conference in Denver, Colorado, in what analysts have seized on as a sign that the government is now reconsidering its prohibitionist stance and commenting that the amending of the old laws is a matter of time.