South Africa: Police have moved in to uproot several cannabis plants growing near President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office in Pretoria.
‘They belonged to activists from the indigenous Khoisan community, some of whom have camped in the area for three years’, the BBC said in a report sighted by Kasatintin.com.
Their leader nicknamed King Khoisan, clung on to a large cannabis plant as police dragged him away.
‘Police… you have declared war’, angry King Khoisan shouted ‘We have been here peacefully. We are coming for you’.
King Khoisan and some fellow activists have so far been arrested and placed in police custody.
They have been charged for ‘dealing in dagga [cannabis], illegal plantation and cultivation of dagga as well as failure to wear a face mask in public when ordered to do so by a police officer’.
Background
Historians consider the Khoisan as South Africa’s oldest inhabitants but they now form a small minority in the country.
In 2018, the activist group set up camp on the green space outside President Ramaphosa’s office, near a giant statue of Nelson Mandela, to campaign for the official recognition of their language.
King Khoisan’s wife expressed her anger and accused officials of deliberately refusing to listen to their concerns.
‘I am very, very cross’, Queen Cynthia said. ‘The president don’t want to come to talk to them’.
Khoisan people just want acknowledgement, she stressed in a media interview.
Queen Cynthia also reacted to why the group planted weed in the camp situated near the President’s office.
She argued that people had been using the plants for medical reasons, such as cancer and high blood pressure…The cannabis had been planted in a vegetable garden.
In spite her justification, police is going ahead with prosecution as personal use of cannabis in private places was decriminalised in South African in 2018.
See more photos of King Khoisan below.
SOURCE: Kasatintin.com
