The oKhahlamba (Bergville) local municipality in the far KwaZulu Natal Midlands has harvested its second low-THC cannabis crop and has secured central government funding for a cannabis processing facility in the area.
.Cannabiz Africa and Sandile Motha, Sunday World
27 October 2024 at 08:30:00
OKhahlamba mayor Vikizitha Mlotshwa told Sunday World last week that the three year-old ambitious Drakensberg community cannabis project had overcome its initial hurdles and prospects were looking good.
Speaking on the side-lines of the South African Local Government Association Provincial Members Assembly held in the KZN Drakensberg between 16 and 18 October 2024, he said: “I’m excited about these developments. Because when we began the cannabis project, many people had doubts. Many thought we would fail in our endeavour. But I’m happy to say that we have sold our second harvest.”
Mlotshwa explained to the gathering of mayors, municipal officials, chief financial officers and senior public servants that the project was financially backed by the municipality when it started. But two government departments had since come in to offer funding. The Department of Small Business and Economic Development has pledged R6-million to finance a cannabis processing facility. Cannabiz Africa believes the other Government department is the provincial Agriculture Department but has not been able to confirm this. The new KZN GNU has promised R40 million in further funding.
“When we sold the harvest as a raw product, we received minimum gains. We have now decided to opt for making cannabis products and sell them to the market” said the mayor. “The R6-million committed by the Department of Small Business and Economic Development will help us a lot.”
Mlotshwa took over as Okhahlamba sheriff after the 2021 municipal elections before he became mayor of the coalition government. He embarked on an ambitious plan to bring traditional cannabis growers into the mainstream in what is believed to be South Africa’s first officially backed community-based cannabis project.
Without going into details he told Sunday World that “ commercial farmers have attempted to hijack the project”
“I told people that we should defend the cannabis space. Because it belongs to us as the indigenous people,” he said. “Besides, lives were lost because the apartheid government waged a war against cannabis growers in this area.”
He was referring to the “Bergvile Dagga War” in 1956 when cannabis farmers clashed with apartheid police in the deep, remote valleys of the eMangwaneni area. Many villagers were subsequently arrested and on 21 March 1957, 22 “dagga warriors” were executed at Pretoria Central Prison.
Their remains were exhumed in 2023 and returned to the Drakensberg.
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