Social development pays for transport and T-shirts
The Gauteng department of social development is paying for transport and T-shirts of protesters from anti-drugs groups at a dagga trial taking place in a Pretoria court.
The T-shirts appear to have mis-spelt the word cannabis as “cannibis”.
Some protesters were seen getting in the way of cars yesterday afternoon, leading to some people taking to Twitter to complain about the use of taxpayers’ money for demonstrators.
Members of the department are also protesting. The department confirmed in a media statement that it had sent staff from its office to protest.
A TimesLIVE journalist also spoke to some government workers from the department attending the protests.
Spokesman Mbanga Xaba said the department was paying for transport and T-shirts of the protesters.
About 100 to 200 protesters were at the court for the whole of last week and protests are continuing this week‚ with demonstrations planned until next week.
Different people are brought into the venue each day as a way of showing that many people oppose the legalisation of dagga.
Most say that dagga is the “gateway drug” and leads to the use of more addictive substances like tik and nyaope.
Some government-sponsored posters read: “High on life not dagga,” “The masses have spoken,” “No to dagga in SA” and “SA has enough challenges.”