21/12/2023
https://www.citizen.co.za/parys-gazette/local-news/2023/12/21/spinasie-maak-plek-vir-canabis-droom/
I work hard for what I have, says 31-year-old Malesela Jacob Masoge proudly. The former pupil of Parys Primary School, who was a keen rugby player in his day, is the owner of the Cannabis plantation in one of the tunnels at the rose farm in Allenby Street, which these days makes passers-by's heads spin, because where once there were spinach plants in this tunnel stood, Cannabis now grows.
And yes, he has a legal permit for what he does, he chats kindly as he points to the permit. It was not easy to get it, he says, and explains the strict requirements set by the Department of Agricultural Land Reform and Rural Development, and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority. He himself obtained a SEETA-accredited certificate at the Cheeba Cannabis Academy in Sandton, but it was a long way to get here.
Actually, he applied for a permit a long time ago, but due to ignorance, nothing came of his application, because he submitted his application at the wrong places. It was only when his father, a retired police colonel and former station commissioner of the Sasolburge police station, talked to him in 2022 about the possibilities of a cannabis plantation that Jacob applied again. In August 2022 he finally got his permit and started his first Cannabis plantation in Sasolburg on a piece of land that was kindly made available to him with profit sharing by a man who was willing to give him a chance. Soon before long Jacob's entrepreneurial dream grew so much that he had to expand.
A second plantation at his house in Grensstraat followed, and then the plantation in the tunnel he rents from the beneficiaries of the rose project. After the preparation of the land was done, and he fulfilled all the requirements of his permit, the first of the 290 Cannabis plants were planted in the tunnel in March 2023. He also got his first harvest.
You harvest every four months, Jacob tells us, and the fertilizer you apply varies. Seven days a week he and the four men who work for him are at the tunnels early in the morning, because they have to be watered and fertilised, he says. It's almost harvest time again. He has an export contract for CBD oil with Portugal, and is negotiating for an export contract with the Netherlands, he says. His Sasolburg plantation produces mainly for prof. Bennie de Beer's Full Spectrum CBD, he says. His plantation at Sasolburg is much larger, he points out, and a contractor now manages the plantation for him.
Actually, he has a degree in IT and worked as a website developer in Portugal from 2015-2017, he says. Then he came back to South Africa where he was senior web designer at Econofoods in Bloemfontein. Over the years he developed an interest in Cannabis and read a lot about it. There are so many benefits to using CBD oil, he says, and says that the cannabis in his plantations is not smoked.
In addition to the CBD oil that is produced, the fiber of the plants is used as material, and as packaging material.
Doing the thing right is important to him, says Jacob. After all, both his parents were in the police service for a long time also here in Parys and Tumahole. His father was second in command at the Paris SAPS in 2004, and then station commissioner in Tumahole, before he went to Sasolburg. His mother, Sophie, retired from the police service as a captain and was, among other things, with Parys SAPS and the Tumahole Detective Branch. I have a dream for Paris, says Jacob. "'A dream to work with the plants that the Lord gave us.'
Om die ding reg te doen, is vir hom belangrik sê Jacob
