Key Players in South Africa’s Cannabis Struggle: The Histories Behind the Rights We Now Hold

South Africa’s cannabis landscape did not change by accident. The private-use rights recognised in 2018, the ongoing fights over inclusion, the incomplete commercial framework, and the continued pressure for fair formalisation all rest on decades of work by a relatively small group of determined individuals and organisations. Understanding who they are, and the histories they carry, is essential to understanding where the sector stands today.

Ras Gareth Prince – The Constitutional Catalyst

Gareth Prince is the name most closely tied to the legal breakthrough. A Rastafarian and trained lawyer, Prince was refused admission as an attorney by the Cape Law Society in the late 1990s because of his cannabis use and previous convictions. He challenged the refusal, arguing that it violated his religious and equality rights. The Constitutional Court rejected that specific claim in 2002, but the case kept the issue alive.

Years later Prince returned to court as part of a broader challenge. In September 2018 the Constitutional Court, in Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development v Prince, unanimously held that the criminalisation of private adult use, possession and cultivation of cannabis was unconstitutional. The judgment suspended the invalidity for 24 months to give Parliament time to fix the law. That decision remains the foundation of every subsequent private-use right in South Africa.

Prince has continued to litigate. In 2026 he, together with the Rastafari National Council and small-scale farmers, brought an urgent application seeking a halt to arrests and a deeper challenge to the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act. The matter has moved between court dates and mediation attempts, with Prince consistently framing the goal as practical protection for growers and an end to the gap between constitutional promise and daily enforcement.

The Dagga Couple – Myrtle Clarke and Julian Stobbs

Myrtle Clarke and the late Julian Stobbs, known as the Dagga Couple, turned personal prosecution into a strategic legal and public campaign. After a 2010 raid on their property that led to dealing charges, they refused to plead out. Instead they launched the “Trial of the Plant,” a sustained challenge to the constitutionality of the cannabis laws themselves. Their organisation, Fields of Green for ALL, became a central non-profit vehicle for evidence, education and advocacy.

Julian Stobbs was murdered in a robbery at their home in July 2020. Myrtle Clarke has continued the work. Fields of Green for ALL remains one of the most consistent voices demanding full rights — including the right to trade — and documenting the human cost of incomplete reform. Their approach has always combined litigation, public education and an insistence that the original custodians of the plant must not be left behind.

Fields of Green for ALL

Registered as a non-profit, Fields of Green for ALL grew out of the Dagga Couple’s legal battles. It has functioned as a knowledge and advocacy hub: collecting evidence, supporting affected individuals, challenging policy gaps, and keeping pressure on the gap between private-use rights and commercial exclusion. The organisation has been vocal on issues ranging from arrests of traditional growers to the risks of formalisation that ignores indigenous knowledge systems.

Supporting Cast and Institutional Players

Other figures and bodies have shaped the terrain:

•  Rastafari National Council and community structures – Long-standing participants in both the Prince litigation and broader cultural defence of the plant as sacrament.

•  Small-scale and traditional growers – Especially in the Eastern Cape (Pondoland/Mpondoland), KwaZulu-Natal and related areas. These communities maintained landrace genetics through seed-saving systems under prohibition. Their formal inclusion remains one of the unresolved central questions of the current policy cycle.

•  Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) – Custodian of the Hemp and Cannabis Master Plan and the forthcoming Cannabis Bill targeted for mid-2027.

•  Department of Small Business Development – Recently commissioned legal work (RFQ closed 2 October 2026) on pathways for indigenous growers.

•  SAHPRA – Regulator of medicinal cannabis and complementary medicines, including the narrow Schedule 0 pathway for low-dose CBD products.

•  Civil-society and industry voices – From early investors who publicly documented the cost of regulatory delays, to community organisations hosting festivals and education events (including the Soweto Cannabis Festival).

The Longer Arc

The 2018 judgment did not appear from nowhere. It rested on years of litigation, public education, cultural assertion and the refusal of key individuals to accept that private adult conduct with a plant should carry criminal consequences. The subsequent years have shown how difficult it is to translate a privacy-based judgment into a coherent commercial and inclusion framework.

Prince continues to press the courts and mediation processes. Fields of Green for ALL continues to document and advocate. Traditional growers continue to operate in a space where private cultivation is protected but commercial participation is largely closed. Government departments continue to announce steering committees, master-plan reviews and legal frameworks. The informal market continues to fill the gap.

The histories of these key players matter because they explain both the gains that have been made and the reasons those gains remain incomplete. Rights were won through persistence in the face of institutional resistance. Inclusion will require the same persistence, directed now at the design of the commercial and licensing systems still under construction.

The plant has deeper roots in Southern Africa than any of the current statutes. The people who kept those roots alive are still waiting for the legal system to catch up fully.

Linkable resources

•  Constitutional Court Prince judgment (2018)

•  Fields of Green for ALL public materials

•  Ongoing reporting on the 2026 Prince application and indigenous-grower RFQ

•  dtic Hemp and Cannabis Master Plan updates