South Africa is one of the most exciting places for legal cannabis policy and industry right now. The African nation first legalized cannabis for medical use in 2017. Another major milestone came in 2018 when South Africa’s top court declared prohibition policies against personal adult-use cannabis activity to be unconstitutional.
Since 2018, South Africa’s government has worked to implement a recreational cannabis industry regulatory framework. As part of that process, South Africa’s policymakers published a National Cannabis Master Plan in 2021, and in 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act, which effectively codified the landmark 2018 legal decision.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act (“CfPPA”). The CfPPA regulates the cultivation, possession, and use of cannabis by adults in a private setting.” The President’s office stated in a press release at the time.
“The consequent regulatory reform enabled by the CfPPA will, amongst others, entirely remove cannabis from the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act. This will further enable amendment of the Schedules to the Medicines and Related Substances Act and provide for targeted regulatory reform of the Plant Breeders Rights Act and the Plant Improvement Act, as well as other pieces of legislation that require amendment to allow for the industrialisation of the cannabis sector.” the press release also stated.
A market projection from April 2024 determined that South Africa’s “formal cannabis industry has the potential to create up to 25,000 jobs and could be worth around R28 billion.” The previously projected economic figures have reportedly evolved.
“The draft National Cannabis Master Plan serves as the basis for developing policy and legislation to regulate cannabis for commercial purposes, envisioning the creation of over 100,000 jobs and adding approximately R30 billion to the economy.” writes Daily Investor in a recent article.
“The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) expects to finalise the commercialisation of cannabis policy and legislation by the end of the 2026/27 financial year.” the investor outlet also reported.
South Africa is on a list of countries that have adopted national adult-use legalization measures, along with Uruguay, Canada, Malta, Luxembourg, and Germany. The Czech Republic also recently adopted a legalization measure, which is set to take effect at the start of 2026. Cannabis is also legal in 24 states in the U.S.
While no two jurisdictions have the exact same legalization model anywhere on the planet, legal cannabis industry employment data from North America may provide some additional insight into how many jobs South Africa’s emerging cannabis industry can expect to create. National recreational cannabis commerce is prohibited in European Union member-nations, and Uruguay’s legalization model is not as conducive to job creation compared to models found in North America.
Even though less than half of the states in the U.S. have legalized cannabis for adult use, the state-level industry in the U.S. currently supports 425,002 full-time jobs. Forty states in the U.S. have now adopted medical cannabis legalization measures, with some of those states also being home to legal medical cannabis industries.
As of 2024, an estimated 74% of people in the United States live where cannabis is legal for adult and/or medical use, which is roughly 255 million people. Obviously, that is considerably greater than South Africa’s estimated population of 64.7 million people. But if we apply the ratio of jobs-to-population from the United States to South Africa, it would work out to roughly 107,833 jobs.
According to the Canadian government, as of May 2023 the legal cannabis industry had created roughly 151,000 jobs in the preceding 4-5 years. That job figure was sourced from an industry analysis conducted by Deloitte and the Ontario Cannabis Store. Applying the same ratio of jobs-to-population from Canada’s 2023 cannabis industry jobs data to South Africa’s current population would work out to roughly 243,633 jobs.