EDTEA MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, said the department’s Moses Kotane Institute of Technology had a Cannabis Unit which dealt with investment into developing the industry.
Dube-Ncube said they were also helping communities to get licensing to cultivate the product and working with other government departments to get access to land, fencing and testing. Krithi Thaver, founder member of the Cannabis Development Council of South Africa said cannabis could tackle many of the challenges facing South Africa right now.
Thaver pointed to many uses of cannabis and said that there were about 50 000 uses of the plant. Some these uses could be helpful to some of the challenges that faced South Africa. These uses include the hard hit textile industry where instead of importing textiles,cannabis can be cultivated to create materials that are as soft as silk and tough as jeans. This could add thousands of jobs to the economy he said.