Cape Town - Parliament has met a 24-month deadline from the Constitutional Court to amend the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act.
The amendment was prompted by a case involving a Somerset West man alleged to have committed offences related to the intent to supply cannabis.
In 2020, the Constitutional Court ordered a section of the Extradition Act unconstitutional and invalid after businessman Jason Smit succeeded in his action, halting his extradition to the UK for charges relating to drug smuggling.
The charges against Smit dated back to 2008, when he was living in the UK, where Smit was arrested for the alleged possession of cannabis.
Smit was released on bail but ended up returning to South Africa, where he was arrested again in 2015 after the UK authorities tracked him down to Cape Town and issued an extradition request.
In response, Smit instituted proceedings in the high court seeking an order declaring section 63 of the Drugs Act, as well as Schedules 1 and 2, constitutionally invalid.
He also challenged the Extradition Act on the basis of double criminality.
The high court found that section 63 of the Drugs Act did represent a violation of the separation of powers and a usurpation of the legislative making powers of Parliament as it allowed the justice minister to determine which substances or plants are prohibited or permitted in South Africa.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court decriminalised the possession and cultivation of cannabis in private by adults for personal consumption in September 2018.
When the case went to the apex court for confirmation in 2020, Smit argued for the schedules to be struck down in their entirety.
The court agreed that the act violated the doctrine of separation of powers and was constitutionally impermissible and gave Parliament 24 months to make amendments.
The court’s judgment read, in part: “Although the order by the high court amounted to an empty victory for the applicant, it is clear that in bringing the application he believed that an order declaring that section 63, together with all the schedules, is inconsistent with the Constitution, would lead to a finding that cannabis is no longer an offence in South Africa.
“This would mean that the double criminality requirement had not been satisfied and that the warrant for his extradition would be successfully challenged.”
The Cabinet approved the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Amendment Bill in August last year for tabling in Parliament, where the portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development passed the bill.
The National Assembly gave the green light to the bill in September 2022 and sent it to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence and in November Parliament passed the bill and sent it to the president for assent.
In December last year, Ramaphosa signed the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Amendment Act into law.