InternAfrica - Media

15/04/1999 Hemp Project - The private sector would also be allowed to apply for a permit for the trials.
24/08/2001 ‘Dope Dwelling’- (SA)
18/11/2002 Hemp for housing – (SA)
01/05/2003 5Fm radio interview (15min )
01/05/2003 Cape Talk radio interview (1hr )
01/05/2003 TV 7pm News - E-Tv
01/05/2003 ‘Build a better life for all with dagga’- (SA)
01/05/2003 Public protector petitioned to build dagga houses - Cape Times
01/05/2003 Capetonian petitions for dagga homes - (SA)
02/05/2003 Cannabis could solve SA’s housing problems - (SA)
02/05/2003 Making homes with dagga mooted - Dispatch
03/05/2003 Kan dagga pyp rook of boustof vir huise? - Die Burger
04/05/2003 Dagga the solution to SA's housing problem? - M&G
05/05/2003 Dagga Houses: protector to take up cudgels - Cape Times
06/05/2003 My dagga plant is on offer to help build homes for the poor - Cape Times
11/05/2003 Hy is vuur en vlam vir sy huise van dagga - Rapport
13/05/2003 ‘High-rise’ housing for South Africa - BBC
15/05/2003 Cannabis homes for South Africans - National Black Newspaper of the year - (CA)
15/05/2003 Inventor propõe uso de planta da maconha em habitações - BBC Brazil
17/05/2003 Crise du logement - Le Figaro - France
18/05/2003 Range ton chanvre - (SA)
11/06/2003 Casas mais baratas e saudáveis - LabMed
01/08/2003 Hemp houses could solve housing shortage - The Big Issue
30/04/2004 TV In-studio interview - SABC Africa (10min)
30/04/2004 Legalise the true highs of dagga’s potential - Cape Argus
01/05/2004 Balloons for dagga liberation - (SA)
01/05/2004 In defence of cannabis - (SA)
03/05/2004 ‘Legalise it, for construction’ say marchers - Cape Argus
03/05/2004 Legalise dagga & help solve SA’s problems’ - This Day
04/05/2004 South Africans march to ‘liberate’ cannabis - (SA)
04/05/2004 Grow with the flow, says dagga lobby - M&G
05/05/2004 ‘Propaganja’ Aims to Clear Up the Haze About Dagga - Pretoria News
02/09/2004 Cape Talk interview; How to build a cannabis Home - Cape Learning Fare - (30min)
03/09/2004 Bush Radio interview; How to build a cannabis home - Cape Learning Fare - (15min)
15/09/2004 South Africa: Don't Bank On Hemp - Business Day
02/11/2004 Bush Radio Cannabis Construction - (15min)
05/04/2005 How ‘cannabricks’ can ease housing problem - Global Report
17/04/2005 People in grass houses won’t get stoned - (SA)
20/04/2005 Why we should build Zol Joints - Daily Voice
21/04/2005 Cape Talk interview - cannabis construction - (30min)
21/04/2005 TV Repeat of 2003 Coverage - World Report - E-Tv
29/04/2005 TV in-studio interview - cannabis construction- World Today (15min)
03/05/2005 How ‘cannabricks’ can ease housing problem - (SA)
03/05/2005 Innovator seeks to build hemp homes - (SA)
04/05/2005 Hemp could be a fix for housing backlog - (SA)
04/05/2005 ‘Cannabricks’ could solve housing crisis - (SA)
06/05/2005 TV Cannabrick update - SABC Africa (10min)
07/05/2005 Cannabrick Demonstration - (SA)
07/05/2005 5Fm radio interview (15min )
07/05/2005 TV 7pm News - E-Tv
08/05/2005 Protestors punt dagga houses - Weekend Argus
08/05/2005 ‘Cannabricks are fireproof’ - Sunday Independent
12/05/2005 TV Voorblad Hoe om ‘n dagga baksteen to bou - Kyk-Net
16/05/2005 Thousands support call for dagga decriminalisation - (SA)
31/05/2005 Hemp housing man lays complaint - (SA)
01/06/2005 Hemp housing ‘unduly delayed’ - (SA)
07/07/2005 Cannabis the answer - Cape Times
14/10/2005 Minister acknowledges Cannabricks and rapid urbanisation
23/11/2005 World Today SABC 3 - InternAfrica - Habitatjam - (SA)
03/02/2006 IRIN Swaziland Marijuana / Umya farming to help S.A. Homeless
09/11/2006 Hemp Houses for Africa - CC
07/02/2008 NGO slams lack of action on shack fires - Cape Argus
08/07/2010 Challenge begins for stadium owners - FT
21/11/2010 Swazi dagga used to build houses?

A special license by year's end that would allow them to grow hemp commercially

The Eastern Cape's minister of agriculture, Max Mamase, recently remarked that he expects farmers in the province to be granted a special license by year's end that would allow them to grow hemp commercially.

According to Mamase the national departments of agriculture, health and and environmental affairs are currently involved in the drafting of new legislation that would see the granting of permits to farmers to grow the much maligned plant as a commercial crop.

The Agricultural Research Council was, in the meanwhile, working on a hybrid that would be ideally suited to local growing conditions."Hemp farmers can easily earn R5000 ($722.5)," stated Mamase, adding that the crop is ideally suited to the Eastern-Cape region, given the region's high levels of poverty and it's reliance on subsistence farming.

The commercial cultivation of hemp is sure to herald an about-turn for rural households, most of whom subsist on a tiny monthly income (a fraction of Hemp's per-acre earning potential).

The minister commented that the introduction of Hemp would, furthermore, make positive contributions to the method of production on communal farms.Hemp has exceptionally strong fibres that have three times the tensile strength of cotton and are softer, warmer, more water resistant and naturally resistant to ultraviolet light.

The plant has also been advocated as a wonder crop that can greatly reduce the environmental degradation caused by the tree-based pulp and paper industry as it produces more pulp per acre than timber on a sustainable basis.

Family of marijuana, hemp has a multitude of additional uses from medicine to fuel, but it does not contain any THC (the intoxicating substance found in marijuana).

Still feared and reviled in the wake of post-60's Calvanism, Hemp's cousin, marijuana, is already extensively cultivated throughout impoverished rural SA and provides many families with an indispensable additional income.

Unlike marijuana, however, hemp produces no purple haze, and poses no palpable threat to Calvanist (and colonialist) morality.

Mamase commented that he expects Hemp to be legalised within the country as a whole within the next 3 years; a move that will herald an end to industrial imperialism and the privileged status accorded to certain products which replaced 10 000 years of global hemp cultivation.

Patentable synthetic products, tree-based paper, petroleum, cotton, and the like, replaced Hemp, which was banned world-wide in the early 20th century.

It would seem, however, that SA is finally re-instigating the cultivation of this multi-purposed crop.

"For the next phase of our hemp project we are taking all six cultivars and we will initiate commercial production," stated Mamase, adding that the project will be off the ground by year's end in the Eastern Cape region.

- GISA South Africa's Green Search Engine

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