Mbuso has been growing cannabis for 14 years. He lives and tends the illicit crop in Swaziland, which is now known officially as Eswatini. Mbuso is just one of scores who depend on high demand from their larger neighbour South Africa for their potent cannabis strain known as "Swazi Gold". They are worried that a recent legal amendment in SA could choke their businesses. In September, South Africa's Constitutional Court decriminalised the use and cultivation of cannabis in private space. But the decision did not legalise its trade or distribution. Florida-based company Profile Solutions Inc has recently received a coveted 10-year licence to produce and sell hemp and medical-grade cannabis in Eswatini. But small-scale farmers are still being prosecuted, detained and having their crops burnt.

In Nhlangano, in the south of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), the illegal farming of the mountainous kingdom’s famous “Swazi gold” is a risk many grandmothers are ready to take. In what is known locally as the “gardens of Eden”, a generation of grandparents are growing cannabis, many of them sole carers for some of the many children orphaned by the HIV/Aids epidemic that gripped southern Africa. Currently, there is only one legal Eswatini cannabis grower: the US-based Profile Solutions Inc has a licence to grow and process medical cannabis and hemp for a minimum of 10 years. But, despite the risks, the Swazi gold grandmothers do not want to join the legal market: “Legalising weed might be a threat to our market, as prices might drop. We want the current situation to remain in place.”

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Did dagga growers influence MPs? The withdrawal of the Opium and Habit-Forming Drugs (Amendment) Bill No.06 of 2020 in the House of Assembly, has raised more questions than answers. Dagga grower Jama said he would continue advocating that dagga should not be legalised and that members of the Royal Eswatini Police Services (REPS) should continue destroying it but not all of it. “By destroying the dagga, the police control the price of dagga from dropping further,” said Jama. Another dagga grower, Musa, also said he was pleased that the Bill had been withdrawn. He said this was good because it meant that the value of the dagga would continue to be high.

Many African states that persecuted citizens for cannabis related offences for years are now promoting legal cannabis production. Over the past five years 10 countries have passed laws to legalise production for medical and scientific purposes. These include Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Eswatini, Rwanda and Morocco. South Africa has also legalised the private growing of cannabis plants by adults for their own personal consumption. The cannabis policy liberalisation in Africa has been brought about by two main factors. One is the lobbying by local activists. Cannabis use is still criminalised in most African countries. The other factor is the emergence of the global legal cannabis industry projected to grow to nearly US$200 billion by 2028.

The U.S. company Stem Holdings reported in 2019 that it had “received preliminary approval to become the only licensed growing farm and processing plant for medical cannabis and industrial hemp in The Kingdom of eSwatini for a minimum of 10 years”. The government denied any knowledge of the deal, even as the country’s health ministry, in haste, pushed to pass a cannabis bill into law. What this means is that locals who have been secretly farming cannabis for years would not be able to farm and export their crops. Cannabis growers were not consulted; neither were the many traditional leaders who govern on communal land (about 54% of the country). The House of Assembly voted against it and instructed the health ministry to conduct thorough and representative consultations.

King Mswati allegedly entered into a deal with Stem Holdings and manipulated provisions of the Prevention of Organized Crime Act (POCA) by unleashing police officers on dagga farmers after Parliament refused to approve the Cannabis Bill, threatening the now controversial project. Around 2018 in the midst of escalating calls to legalize dagga, local and international companies applied for a cannabis license through the Ministry of Health but Stem Holdings allegedly approached royalty through the then Minister of Economic Planning and Development Prince Sihlangusemphi, a brother to the king later appointed into a position in the army equivalent to that of Minister of Defense. (See also:MP ‘Magawugawu’ on police surveillance, faces arrest over sentiments threatening King’s dagga deals)