When the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that private use of dagga has been decriminalized, Mzansi celebrated.
However, immediately after, questions surrounding the legalities of the judgment surfaced from the public.
Daily Sun spoke to legal expert Professor Catherine Albertyn about the judgment.
Albertyn, a professor in the School of Law at Wits, specializes in Constitutional Law.
She is the South African Research Chair in Equality, Law and Social Justice and former director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits.
Professor Albertyn called the judgment “quite a narrow judgment.”
She said that Parliament is yet to iron out issues like what “privacy” means in light of the law.
“Smoking in your own home is fine,” she said.
“If someone wants to grow it in their kitchen, the judgment covers it. It has to be a small portion and cultivated only for personal use and for smoking in private.”
She also advised against smoking zol in public, as the judgment does not cover smoking in public.
“It is advisable for the judgment to be interpreted quite restrictively,” she said.
She also warned against citizens taking selfies of themselves smoking in public.
“This could open them to prosecution,” she said.
“We can imagine that parliament will provide further details as the Court is expecting guidelines from parliament as to the issue of regulation,” she said.
