GUN and RUF challenge postponed to 15 October

The matter in which cannabis activist and president of the organisation Ganja Users of Namibia (Gun) and the Rastafari United Front (RUF), Brian Jaftha, is challenging Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa has been postponed to 15 October. The parties agreed that the matter is postponed, pending the review of the legislation by the Law Reform Commission. Jaftha has taken the Prosecutor General, the Inspector General of the Namibian Police, the Justice Minister and the Minister of Health and Social Services to the High Court. He seeks the court's intervention and the court to rule that he can use dagga and is also challenging the constitutionality of all laws prohibiting dagga in Namibia. Jaftha also wants the court to declare that legislation prohibiting the possession and use of cannabis is invalid because it is inconsistent with the Constitution, he wants all mention of cannabis to be removed from the Abuse of Dependence-Producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act of 1971. Those who are currently imprisoned for the use or possession of cannabis must be released from jail, and the criminal records of everyone previously convicted of possessing cannabis in Namibia to be wiped clean, he states in his founding affidavit. Brian Jaftha is represented by lawyer Kadhila Amoomo and the state by Jabulani Ncube.

Author
EMIL SEIBEB