Premier punts dagga farms for province
We are looking at a number of options. We have to do something beyond what we have been doing
Oscar Mabuyane
Eastern Cape premier
Cannabis farming in the Eastern Cape must be encouraged so that it thrives, but it must be properly regulated and managed, said premier Oscar Mabuyane.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the annual Ingquza Hill Massacre memorial celebrations near Flagstaff on Thursday, Mabuyane revealed his government was exploring setting up a cannabis industry to boost economic development in the Mpondoland area.
Mabuyane said his government needed to come up with something to change the lives of residents, including the families of those who were killed in the 1960 massacre and those who were hanged by the apartheid regime in Pretoria.
Speaking about cannabis agriculture, he said: “We are looking at a number of options. We have to do something beyond what we have been doing. It [cannabis industry] must be properly regulated and properly managed as it can help us industrialise this area.”
He said cannabis had contributed immensely to the development of the economies of Canada. “Our people here [in Mpondoland] can be taught how to make products.”
The premier said other projects like the N2 Wild Coast toll road, which included the construction of two multibillionrand bridges, would also boost the economy of the area and contribute immensely to the creation of jobs.
Mabuyane was joined by education MEC Fundile Gade, sport, recreation, arts & culture MEC Fezeka Bayeni, provincial legislature deputy speaker Mlibo Qoboshiyane and OR Tambo district mayor Robert Nogumla in laying wreaths at a memorial built on the site of the massacre. Bayeni called on young people to honour the contribution of the people of Ingquza Hill who had been “martyrs”.
She said the government had spent R60m on developing the massacre site, including erecting a memorial stone and establishing a museum.
AmaMpondo king Zanozuko Sigcau berated his subjects for fighting amongst themselves over “petty things”. Making reference to the N2 toll road project over which communities staged protests in recent months, he said what was worrying was “while we are fighting over things we don’t know, our children are unemployed”.
He appealed to the government to work with other municipalities when hosting memorial commemorations of the Ingquza Hill and Mpondo revolt of 1960 in general as “our people from Mbizana and Ntabankulu were also hanged”.
Siniko Mafuya, 93, whose father was among those hanged, said he and his family were let down by unfulfilled government promises of compensation and RDP houses.
SA National Heritage Council chief executive officer Sonwabile Mangcotywa said the Mpondo Heritage Liberation Route fitted into the category of “memory of the world”, meaning it could potentially become the Eastern Cape’s first world heritage site.