Africa-Press – Namibia. THE government has given notice that it will ask for the dismissal of a lawsuit aimed at legalising dagga in Namibia unless it is amended.
A lawyer representing the government, the ministers of justice and health and social services, the inspector general of the Namibian Police, and the prosecutor general has, in a notice filed at the Windhoek High Court, raised an exception to a claim in which two leading members of the organisation Ganja Users of Namibia (Gun) are asking the court to declare that the prohibition of cannabis use and possession in Namibia is unconstitutional.
Deputy government attorney Jabulani Ncube says in the notice that allegations made in the claim of Gun president Brian Jaftha and the organisation’s secretary general, Borro Ndungula, do not support the legal action they are trying to take and do not comply with the court’s rules.
According to Ncube, the two plaintiffs’ assertions that the prohibition of dagga in Namibia infringes on their constitutional rights are not based on facts which they have set out, but are conclusions of law.
The claim of Jaftha and Ndungula does not provide sufficient particulars to enable the government and other defendants in the matter to identify the case the two plaintiffs require them to meet, Ncube also states in the notice.
The two plaintiffs’ case against the government and other defendants was filed in the High Court in August last year.
After a first exception was raised by Ncube, lawyer Kadhila Amoomo, who is representing Jaftha and Ndungula, filed an amended claim in January.
In their claim, Jaftha and Ndungula say they have been using cannabis – which they describe as a “harmless and medically beneficial herbal substance” – for personal, recreational, medicinal, spiritual, therapeutic, creative and religious purposes. They also say they have both been charged with the possession of dagga in cases which are pending in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court.
According to Jaftha and Ndungula, the prohibition of dagga is irrational, malicious, unjustified and unjust, and violates a number of their constitutional rights: the rights to equality and freedom from discrimination, privacy, a fair trial, culture, and religion.
They claim the prohibition of cannabis “owes its existence to outdated, unfounded and false convictions on the harmfulness and dependence-producing effects of cannabis, motivated in part by a now-defunct racist political agenda”.
They also claim the prohibition is “motivated by false and unscientific propaganda in support of a global corporate and state anti-competitive conspiracy for profit-motivated control of resource markets”, which they say is intended to deny Namibians access to cannabis as a natural resource. Jaftha and Ndungula are asking the court to declare that the prohibition of possession and use of cannabis is inconsistent with the Constitution.
They further want the court to order that people who are in prison for the possession of dagga should be released, and that previous convictions for the possession of cannabis should be removed from people’s criminal records.
In the notice filed on behalf of the defendants, Ncube is asking the court to strike the two plaintiffs’ claim and allow them to amend their case within 20 days, or to dismiss their claim if they do not amend it.
The matter has at this stage been postponed to 1 June for a next case management hearing.
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