Cannabiz Africva
Leading South African law firm CDH has challenged the Department of Justice’s view that private cannabis clubs are illegal and contravene the Cannabis Act. Not so, says CDH. There has been no legal declaration that clubs are illegal, and actually, a careful reading of the Act shows they are within prescribed guidelines.
Does the Department of Justice even understand the laws it is trying to enact?
This is the question being asked of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, which has been identified as the state agency that carries the most blame for the Government’s failure to implement its official policy of developing a regulated cannabis economy that uplifts the rural poor and contributes meaningfully to the GDP.
Now the Department’s own interpretation of the Cannabis Act has been thrown into question by leading South African law firm CDH. In a recent in-depth assessment of the current cannabis landscape, Green Gold or Legal Quagmire?, published on 3 June 2026 ins the Sunday Times Agriculture Magazine, Belinda Scriber and Claudia Grobler argue, that on the face of it, properly constituted private cannabis clubs are not illegal, even if they have not been expressly declared as legal.
They clarify what they call an “area of persistent legal uncertainty” – that is the legal status of entities that have constituted themselves as private, social or grow clubs using a ‘closed loop system’.
This is an excerpt from their analysis, which deals with properly-constituted cannabis clubs:
Read the full analysis
https://www.cannabiz-africa.com/blog/6a265f0e9c569ef156136de2
