Unfortunately when I feel strongly about something I enter the “maxhalanga ndidleni” mode! And the dagga issue forces me to enter that mode.

I want to say that there’s a special corner in hell for “leaders” who have forgotten that many fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in Pondoland spent, collectively, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years in jail over the past couple of centuries just because the colonial and apartheid governments saw dagga as a threat to their project of keeping the black citizens of this country poor, subservient and reliant on an economic system in which they were effectively prohibited from being part of, except as providers of labour.

Now that there is finally this long-overdue move to legalise what they have been doing for hundreds of years, they are pushed back and relegated to the same marginalised position that was imposed by whites, this time by their own black-led government.

This is a recipe for a violent uprising. I’m not being alarmist but I am a realist who is very much in touch with the sentiments of people on the ground.

We cannot have leaders who think that events at posh hotels and trips for politicians are the correct approach to getting our people to be at the epicentre of this industry that’s worth trillions of Rands.

As I wrote elsewhere, the 3 industries that we managed to cling to prior to 1994, despite the repressive apartheid regime, were football, taxis and dagga. We have already lost the first two. In football the club ownership patterns and supplier companies to the industry show that we have relinquished control of the industry. The proliferation of taxi hailing apps is cutting a huge chunk of the taxi industry away from black hands into white foreign hands.

And now, the last of the 3 – the dagga industry – is being given to whites again. The strawberry farm – yes you read right, it’s a strawberry farm – in Western Cape that is the first to be granted a licence to produce cannabis is WHITE OWNED. Let me repeat! There’s a special corner in hell for leaders who think that this is correct!

It beggars belief that our own government can allow whites to develop a licensing regime that is designed to clearly make it impossible for our people to legalise what they have perfected over centuries. Yes the licensing regime was developed by whites. Check the membership and leadership of the licensing authority for evidence.

You will see, the second and the third and the fourth and the thousandth licensee will all be white before one black person gets tired of being told that “your application has not been successful because you failed to meet the prescribed criteria” and that person finds a white company to front for. And that one black person will be an already rich politically-connected individual who knows nothing, and cares not, about the centuries of suffering that our people have endured running this industry under conditions specifically crafted to make it difficult for them to grow and benefit from.

Trips and events! For people who have 2 or 3 years left in their positions whilst those whose lives have always been intricately linked to the industry for hundreds of years are systematically pushed into the doldrums of the efforts to extract value from the industry. There’s indeed a special place in hell for those who think that this is the way to go!

Can you imagine if there was an effort for a blanket licence for every single household all along the wild coast and beyond, households that each have a small garden in front of them and what used to be a millie field a short distance away? Can you imagine how that would cause all our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers, who have fled the economic hardship of the rural areas to live in dehumanising conditions in informal settlements, to come back home because there is now our own “green gold” to benefit from?

Can you imagine what that “repopulation” of our villages would do to the population statistics of our province and therefore the equitable share? There are about 12m citizens in this country who call the EC “my original home” but half of them had to go and live elsewhere. Can you imagine if hypothetically they all came back because there was a stronger economic benefit accruing from our green gold than continuing to live elsewhere? That would double the provincial population! And that would double the equitable share! That would half the time it would take us to deliver services to the people.

But then again I’m just dreaming. Leaders prefer trips and events for a chosen few rather than implementing radical plans to benefit the masses of our people. There is indeed a special corner in hell for those who refuse to see this!

Whether real or perceived, the ANC is already referred to as a party of thieves. Even if we are indeed thieves, may we please not steal the green gold from the hands of those who have suffered for it!

Ace Ncobo is a community activist and writes in his personal capacity