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SA cannabis law update: what actually changed this month
The CPPA was signed by President Ramaphosa on 28 May 2024, but that signature didn't flip a switch. There's a line at the top of the Act that reads "Commencement to be proclaimed." It is not in force yet.
The Department of Justice expects the final regulations by the end of their 2025-26 financial year. Multiple departments are still reviewing: health, agriculture, trade, police, social development. These things move slowly.
Meanwhile, two developments worth watching:
First, the Plant Improvement Act came into effect in late 2025. Most people missed it. It deals with fruit, vegetables, and hemp, but buried inside is something called the National Varietal List. If a plant variety wants into the commercial system, it needs to be on that list. Cannabis isn't on it yet, but the mechanism exists.
Second, the draft cannabis regulations contain Regulation 5, which includes a line about only "permissible strains" being allowed in the legal market. No list of permissible strains exists today and the regulation is still a draft, but it points to a future where which genetics you grow could be decided by a government list.
On the seed side: seeds are already outside the legal definition of cannabis. That predates the CPPA and traces back to the 2018 Constitutional Court ruling. The CPPA will codify this. No one is being prosecuted for buying or selling seeds. It's not a loophole, it's baked into the definition.
The question for SA growers isn't whether the law will change tomorrow. It's whether they'll be ready when it does.