Following on from the Rasta Round Table in February 2025 in which the SAHRC and the security cluster opened up a channel of dialogue, Rastafarians from communities around the country say police discrimination and harassment continues.

SAHRC Commissioner Tshepo Madlingozi (pictured above) says Rastas have been designated  one of the SAHRC’s two ‘priority communities’ that are suffering systematic abuse

Writing in the Mail and Guardian on 4 June 2025, Madlingozi says Rastafarians are being targeted as ‘dealers’ when clearly using cannabis legally for personal use. He says the lack of clear SAPS guidelines in managing cannabis is compounding the problem.

“The Cannabis Act only allows for arrests for dealing in cannabis, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect dealing. Yet, the complaints received by the SAHRC from the Rastafari community suggest that most arrests are still for private possession and use” he says.

“Because of a lack of regulations from the justice department, which would specify quantities, the definition of “dealing” has been left to the discretion of individual police officials.”

Madlingozi the state should be more proactive in recognising Rastafarians as a “legitimate community that requires similar protections and measures of redress to other previously disadvantaged and marginalised communities”.

He said this should include:

·      ceasing all cannabis-related arrests,

·      prohibiting discrimination against children with dreadlocks in private and public schools, and

·      expunging all criminal records for persons who have been convicted of cannabis-related crimes.

He said it was imperative that the Justice Department urgently developed clear and precise regulations on the use and possession of cannabis, including quantities, to guide both cannabis users and the criminal justice cluster.

”The unfair discrimination against the Rastafari community and their social position as a marginalised group has largely been left out of the popular discourse about equality and transformation in South Africa’s body politic. And yet, the Rastafari community continues to experience some of the worst violations of constitutional rights, including their rights to equality, religion, culture, dignity, health and education” said Madlingozi

He said the recent gazetting of the foodstuffs regulations is “an example of the exclusion of the Rastafari from the democratic processes of decision-making in matters that affect them, and is a continuation of paternalistic colonial and apartheid attitudes to this community, and the cannabis plant.” 

Madlingozi said the SAHRC would partner the Rastafari community in trying to restore their human rights. He said one such initiative was held on 13 March 2025 where SAHRC commissioners Sandra Selokela Makoasha and Philile Ntuli hosted a roundtable specifically for Rastafari women, to provide a safe space for expression and discussion of their specific experiences as a result of their multi-fold identity and intersecting social position as Rastafari, women, wives, mothers, caregivers, workers and cannabis producers and traders. 

"But all interventions such as these, by state and non-state actors, will be rendered ineffective as long as the broader South African society continues to stigmatise and discriminate against the Rastafari. From Jan Smuts to Gareth Prince, the struggle against state overreach and for the valorisation of indigenous cultures and practices continues" he said.. 

Tshepo Madlingozi is a commissioner responsible for anti-racism, education and equality at the South African Human Rights Commission

#