ANALYSIS: SA’s annual cannabis expo reflects a budding industry in a somewhat muddled landscape

You would have to be completely stoned if you have not noticed the proliferation of retail cannabis outlets — usually in the guise of ‘clubs’ in the face of legal uncertainty — that have sprung up in South Africa in recent years, including in the ubiquitous malls.

It has become an annual ritual at the typically staid Sandton Convention Centre: the pungent aroma of pot drifting into the cool autumn air over Alice Lane as a DJ cranks tunes and occasionally flings joints to an appreciative crowd.

The stoners outside may be chilled, but inside the Cannabis Expo one gets a whiff of the serious business of pot in South Africa and the wider region. The cannabis sector is budding and reaching new highs.

This year’s expo was visibly larger than last year’s and featured companies providing software and hardware solutions geared for the cannabis retail sector, businesses offering growing technology such as lights and nutrients, as well as the usual assortment of hawkers selling bud, edibles and paraphernalia.

It also had consultants from as far away as Zambia, and you know a sector is taking off when consultants start getting involved.

“In Zambia, we are looking at a multibillion-dollar business. We are officially starting growing, with all of the regulations approved, and licences will be issued from August for production and commercial use for medical marijuana and hemp,” said Stephano Majawa, a director of the Lusaka-based cannabis consultancy Prosper Sievu Investments.

“There are 100,000 hectares in Zambia available for hemp for industrial purposes and 10,000 hectares available for medical cannabis. We want investors in Zambia in this space.”

The event’s organisers said exhibitor participation this year was 12% higher than in 2025, with 132 businesses represented on the show floor — a reflection of the surging growth in the sector that was unleashed in 2018 by the landmark apex court ruling that held that adult South Africans had a constitutional right to grow and partake of cannabis.

Almost a decade later, government policy has still not quite abided by the spirit of that ruling, leaving the sector somewhat dazed and confused. But it is slowly starting to grasp this low-hanging fruit, which is rapidly spreading across the economic landscape.

“Last year, there was a great deal of uncertainty, frustration and, frankly, confusion within the market. This year, there is a noticeable sense of momentum. Government signalling around retail licensing and broader cultivation frameworks has shifted sentiment from cautious and defensive to optimistic and opportun