MPS PLAYING MUSICAL CHAIRS WITH CANNABIS

There is a criminal lack of foresight on the part of lawmakers for delaying the due processes legitimising the exploitation of cannabis to kick-start the rebuilding of an economy long ruined by bad governance and presently further exacerbated by the COVID-19-causing coronavirus that has led to wholesale shutdown of economies across the globe from which the Kingdom of Eswatini has also not been spared. But before knuckling down to the cannabis issue that somewhat has become controversial of late, I will briefly detour to the topic of our times, the  coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Without being an alarmist, the high numbers of those testing positive for COVID-19, especially in the past week, is enough to cause panic. Panic because the ever rising numbers of people testing positive for COVID-19 suggests that what is abroad now may just be a tip of an iceberg considering that testing thus far is selective.

Positive

As I see it, the sum total of those testing positive for COVID-19 in the past week alone suggests that the pandemic has a foothold and poses a real time threat to the nation. Indeed we ought to be worried because this speaks to inherent weaknesses in leadership and people’s inability to adapt to and follow the immediate prevention interventions such as wearing of face masks in public spaces, social distancing, regular hand washing hygiene regime and, where possible, staying at home and keeping away from crowded places.

While expectations were that the most vulnerable and likely to be victims of the pandemic would be the elderly above 60 years old, it seems the most affected now are between 30 and 39 years old – the economically active falling within the youth age bracket and, therefore, the future. If anything, this nation cannot afford mass fatalities given the small size of the population and the concomitant challenges this would bequeath to those lucky enough to survive the pandemic. At this rate it would not be far-fetched to expect the worst if there is no paradigm shift, albeit it may already be too late, in the way the country has confronted the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pandemic

As I see it, the incapacity of government to mount full scale mass testing given the high numbers of those testing positive for COVID-19 is feeding to the anxiety of how far the pandemic has imbedded itself before translating into dead bodies. Typically, it is like walking in the dark without any clue of what is lurking out there thus making the future uncertain.

Manifestly, government has failed or refused to throw the full might of its resources at countering the COVID-19-causing  coronavirus since it declared a partial lockdown and opted, as usual, to leave this to donors.Back to the issue of cannabis that our legislators seem to be treating like a game of ping-pong when the herb could be catalytic to resuscitating a crippled economy. It would appear the honourable ones who are handsomely rewarded by the taxpayer and, therefore, insulated from poverty are only too happy to take the country back to the days when there was ‘no hurry in Eswatini’.

Yet other nations, especially from within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) led by none other than Lesotho, with good and decisive leadership, did not have the luxury to procrastinate but took the huge quantum leap forward and quickly formulated the requisite legislative framework to exploit the economic value of cannabis as catalytic to the development of their economies. This has placed these countries on a strategic and competitive pedestal in terms of market share and domination while Eswatini remains undecided on whether or not to reinvent the wheel. 

Now we have been told the matter of decriminalising cannabis has been parked for six months, and possibly longer, to allow for consultations. What consultations exactly when the last Parliament constituted a committee to go around the globe to gather best practices for domestic adaptation to legitimise cannabis, one may ask. Could it be that exercise was a waste of scarce resources because, I am sure, that committee compiled a report that should have been instructive in moving the matter and the country forward?

There ought to be no question about farming licencing being exclusively a preserve for indigenous farmers. In this scheme of things, external investors should only be allowed to contest the processing and possibly research spaces but not participate in farming. Put differently, the two industries, farming and processing and research should be distinct from each other, unlike in the sugar value chain where producers/manufacturers are also the primary source of the sugar cane.
As it were, this is the perfect window to reconstruct the economy of the kingdom and to directly empower emaSwati to give meaning to independence.

Additionally, if there was a need to reinvent the wheel – mindset that Eswatini would be the first country in the world to decriminalise cannabis - instead of adapting best practices from elsewhere and tweaking these with a domestic flavouring, lawmakers should have rather used the old colonial law to create a transitional vehicle legitimising cannabis for other uses than recreational with a sunset clause once the substantive law once it is finalised.

This transitional vehicle would enable for the creation of an authority to regulate the industry, in the meantime, as envisaged by the old colonial law. This would bring to an end the continued persecution and prosecution of dagga farmers, not to speak of the periodic destruction of millions of Emalangeni worth of dagga by the police while the economy is bleeding.   



 

 



 

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: