Mbuyane has long been a supporter of cannabis as an economic driver to alleviate poverty and create jobs in the Eastern Cape. Speaking at Coega, the industrial zone outside Gqeberha, on 28 April 2024, he said the Eastern Cape was taking a “whole plant” approach as envisaged in the President’s Phakisa Cannabis and Hemp Action Lab Initiative.

Little has come of The Phakisa since it was announced in June 2023, and Mbuyane wants the Eastern Cape to taking the lead in the “sandbox” approach outlined by the Presidency:

Editor’s note: the “Sandbox” approach describes a scenario where provinces can create special cannabis zones which are exempt from national cannabis rules do not apply, and therefore can focus on commercialising the plant within certain guidelines).

Mbuyane said his administration was “concerned by the slow progress of the country's policymakers in expediting the full implementation of the Cannabis Phakisa resolution…for the creation of an enabling cannabis regulation framework that encompasses the commercial exploitation of whole plant, all purposes legislation.

“Whilst we await the whole plant, all-purpose legislation, we further implore the National Cannabis Steering Committee chaired by Minister Didiza and Cannabis Advisor at Presidency PMO to expedite the “sandbox regulatory interim reform”, he said.

“We cannot be missing in action when our province is endowed with a crop that can be ploughed and processed to make medicinal products and create jobs for our people” said Mbuyane who added that the province would seek to develop cannabis through an inclusive industrial value chain approach.

In terms of an investor agreement signed with Medigrow, R100 million will be invested in building an extraction and manufacturing operation to grow indoor cannabis for export as well as added value products. Medigrow has pledged to invest R5 billion in Coega over the next five years.

A key part of the investment package is Medigrow’s proposal to support a “medicinal cannabis flower supplier programme” in which the investor will be responsible for the offtake of small farmers. It’s envisaged that 1 000 ha of industrial cannabis will be planted.

Mbuyane said this had the potential to create 3 000 jobs (on the assumption of three jobs per hectare) and that over the next five years production and job creation would rise tenfold.

The Premier said “the investment represents the biggest investment in this subsector in the province and we hope it will act as a catalyst to those investors (locally and internationally) who have identified the province as a strategic location for cannabis investment. We are ready as this province to host these investors.”

Mbuyane paid tribute to the province’s cannabis growers, who he noted, had suffered great hardship in keeping their cannabis culture alive: “the province’s indigenous cannabis growers and knowledge holders (have) withstood harassment, the destruction and spraying of their cannabis crops with dangerous chemicals, arrests, criminalization, and even death to protect this wonder plant/crop owned by Africans from being obliterated."

Among those present at the Coega function were members of the Eastern Cape Hemp Producer’s Association, who Mbuyane said “should ensure that its hemp producer members and their farming operations are ready for this opportunity.  Use the offtake contract to solicit loans, from Government loan facilities, as a clear demonstration of your commitment to this opportunity made possible by the Provincial Government.”

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