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BusinessLive reports that the presidential working committee on jobs has rallied behind the government’s plans to legalise cannabis to unlock economic growth and job creation.
The committee, which meets at Nedlac every month, comprises government, business, labour and community stakeholders. Its meeting on Monday followed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address (Sona) in February, where he announced that the state would open up and regulate the commercial use of hemp products in 2020 to provide opportunities to small-scale farmers. Ramaphosa also said his administration would formulate policy on the use of cannabis products “for medicinal purposes, to build this country in line with global trends”. According to Business Unity SA president Sipho Pityana, one of the items discussed at Monday’s meeting of the working group was the use of cannabis for industrial and medicinal use, and its contribution to job creation. Godfrey Selematsela of union federation Fedusa said they supported the legalisation of cannabis as long as it was not done “haphazardly” and was aimed at growing the ailing economy. “The issue of cannabis and hemp, in our view, will assist in creating jobs in SA. Therefore, it is important that [cannabis] is not classified as a drug as per the current legislation,” said Selematsela.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive
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