Home | News | MP TELLS RESIDENTS TO PREPARE FOR DAGGA FARMING

MP TELLS RESIDENTS TO PREPARE FOR DAGGA FARMING

08/03/2020 00:41:00 BY MBONGENI NDLELA

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mbongeni@times.co.sz

MBABANE – Has dagga been legalised in the country?

Residents under Ngwempisi constituency are currently grouping themselves into schemes in preparation to embark on commercial dagga farming because they have allegedly been informed that legalisation of dagga is near.

In reaction to this, potential dagga farmers have started clearing land for farming and have further approached financial institutions looking for loans in readiness to pay for the dagga licence, which they have been told by their parliamentarian that it would cost around E50 000. This figure is far less than the E1 million that was announced in parliament during the drafting and formulation of the Opium and Habit Forming Drugs Bill of 2019.

The Bill was tabled last year by the Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi.since then there have been calls for the legalisation of dagga, which is also known as marijuana.

Police, on the other hand have said there is no law in their possession that legalises the growing of dagga hence they will continue to arrest anyone, including Ngwempisi residents, found in possession of dagga.

imminent dagga farming

Eswatini and Mozambique are the only countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region that have not legalised dagga for commercial purposes. Last week, Malawi became the latest state to pass a cannabis bill into a law, joining the likes of South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
Ngwempisi residents who spoke to the Times SUNDAY said they were also looking for best sources of dagga seeds in preparation for the imminent dagga farming exercise.

They are doing this because their incumbent Member of Parliament has allegedly told them to get ready for dagga farming on claims that parliament has approved all processes for the legalisation of cannabis.
The Ngwempisi MP is Mthandeni Dube.

This is the same MP whom Lobamba Lomdzala legislator, Marwick Khumalo jokingly made reference to in parliament when addressing Prime Minister (PM) Ambrose Dlamini on Monday.
MP Khumalo punned that the PM should consider Dube for appointment as Cabinet minister in the event there is a reshuffle.
Ngwempisi falls under the Manzini Region and the constituency has five chiefdoms; namely, Ngcoseni, Macudvulwini, Velezizweni, Dladleni and Bhadzeni.

The residents have claimed that Dube announced during several constituency development meetings that they should start preparing themselves for dagga farming.
“Yes, MP Mthandeni Dube told us during a meeting at the Ngcoseni chiefdom to start preparing ourselves for dagga farming. He told us to form groups or schemes so that we can easily acquire loans for dagga farming.

However, we were shocked by his statement because we are aware that dagga farming has not been legalised yet in the country. We even asked him as to when Parliament approved the dagga forming Bill but he did not give us a clear answer. We then recorded his statement to be part of chiefdom’s minutes,” said Sanele Ginindza, a member of the inner council of Ngcoseni royal chiefdom.

Tony Msibi, a member of the inner council said: “The MP is said to have stated that we should start preparing ourselves for dagga farming and that parliament has reduced the amount for the dagga licence from the stipulated E1 million to E50 000. We are currently busy doing what the MP told us to do.”

‘good news’

Bucopho of Ngcoseni Simo Mabuza said even though he has not attended any meetings where the dagga statements were discussed, he was hoping that the MP would discuss such information in their weekly meetings.
“I was not there hence I cannot say much. We are now old and we need to protect each other and not say contradictory things,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ngwempisi Indvuna Yenkhundla Hebert Ngwenya confirmed that there were reports that the legislator had announced to residents that they should start preparing for dagga farming.

He said he learnt about this after some residents started flocking the inkhundla to, among other things; thank them for the dagga ‘good news’. He said some residents came to seek assistance on how to form the schemes and groups for dagga farming.

“Even though the MP has not formally informed the inkhundla council about progress of the marijuana Bill, we have heard that he has already made announcements in various meetings around the inkhundla, telling residents to prepare for dagga farming. Some residents have approached the inkhundla on that regard,” Ngwenya said.

He said following the dagga announcement, some residents had started to prepare land for dagga farming as they had been instructed to do so.

responsibilities

MP Dube confirmed that he told the residents to be ready for dagga farming. He said he did this as one of his responsibilities as a legislator; that of reporting back to the residents about processes and programmes that Parliament is advocating.
He said even though the report was done in good faith, there were individuals who wanted to hijack the exercise and make it a political matter.

“Even tomorrow (today) I am having two meetings within the constituency and part of the agenda includes telling those in attendance to prepare themselves for dagga farming,” he said on Friday.

nothing wrong

On Thursday, the MP told the Times that there was nothing wrong with him telling the residents to start preparing for dagga farming. He said in fact, it was his duty to do so.

Asked what would happen if the Bill is not acceded to by His Majesty the King, the legislator said: “I would go back to the residents and tell them to abort the processes of dagga farming,”

He said dagga should not be regarded as ‘inunu’ because it has the potential to revive the country’s economy if commercialised. He said those who wanted to criminalise or dent his exercise of informing the residents about dagga processes should back off.
Meanwhile, Eswatini Cannabis Association (ECA) Chairman Saladin Magagula said Eswatini was trailing behind on the cannabis market, which has a great potential to change the country’s economic situation for the better.

As reported by our sister publication, the Times of Eswatini daily this week, Magagula said the latest update they got on the Bill was that it had lapsed and it was going back to parliament for legislators to make submissions on it.

He said the Ministry of Health would have to go back to Cabinet to get a fresh mandate so that the bill would again be tabled in parliament and parliamentarians would have to do the same process all over again.

prioritised
“We hope that it would be prioritised to be among the first bills to be tabled in parliament. There is no way the process could be short-circuited, it has to go through the process if it has lapsed.
‘‘Then the regulations will follow. We are grateful for these countries that have legislated the growing of cannabis and we are also grateful to the Members of Parliament who are also addressing the issue,” he said.

How to get a dagga farming licence in Eswatini

l There are about 13 requirements which were presented by the ministry of Health, most of which focus on the security of the field where the dagga could be grown for both medicinal and manufacturing of products from the plant.

l The ministry said when a person applied for the cannabis licence, there must be provision of stringent security measures which include the installation of devices to ensure restricted access and the installation of visual monitoring devices at the site.

l Another requirement included in the draft provisional licence is provision of full-time monitoring of perimeter site by personnel, and also the provision of a storage facility which is to be approved of by the agency (regulator) and the police.

l Those who wish to grow the dagga would also be expected to install an air filtration system to prevent the escape of odours and pollen and further installation of transport security measures including tracing and tracking systems.

l The draft also calls for the licence holder to provide evidence of expertise in cannabis cultivation and production, and the submission of a police clearance from criminal activities involving narcotic drugs for all the directors and employees of the company.

l The licence to cultivate and process dagga for medicinal or scientific use only, is that the persons are expected to submit proof of land ownership or title to cultivation or production premises.

l The submission of a certificate of approval of area of cultivation from the Ministry of Agriculture and submission of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) clearance from Eswatini Environmental Authority’ are also some of the other requirements proposed by government.