Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau says he wants a cannabis commercialization policy put into law by the end of February 2026, the government’s next financial year end. This is according to his answers to written questions about the Cannabis Master Plan in Parliament on 7 June 2025.

Tau said the DTIC was awaiting action from the Justice Department to publish the regulations that would empower the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act which in turn would trigger the removal of cannabis from the Drugs Act. He said that until such time as the Justice Department did this, the DTIC was hampered in developing a commercial cannabis framework.

“As it stands, the trade in cannabis is still outlawed said Tau.

He stressed that public safety concerns would be at the centre of any future cannabis strategy: “The commercialisation of cannabis products for human consumption must occur in an environment that protects the health of South Africans”.

The Minister said that the commercialization policy was a work in process that he wanted to conclude by the 2026/7 financial year end, although he warned “it may be challenging to predict exactly when the framework will be established and to commit to a specific timeline due to the complexities associated with the policy and legislative development.”

“The Department of Agriculture is working on a framework on zoning to support the traditional cannabis growing areas which will safeguard and preserve the local landraces cannabis strains” said Tau, who added that two hemp varieties (ARC-CAN-01 and ARC-CAN-03) had been registered under the Plant Improvement Act and Plant Breeders' Rights Act, “to promote the availability of local quality seed material for propagation in the country rather than relying solely on imported genetics”.

“A multiplication programme of the two varieties and evaluation of more varieties commenced in 2024 and is currently underway through partnership between the Department of Agriculture and ARC”, he said.

Tau said the DTIC had developed a checklist to help assess applications for funding based on the current regulatory environment, and that the Department would only adjudicate applications that complied with the checklist which has been published on the Department’s website.

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