A new coalition will launch on 26 June with a simple demand: end the criminalisation of drug use in South Africa. In a country beset by collapsing harm reduction infrastructure, an HIV crisis, and entrenched political resistance, the Vusubuntu Decriminalisation Coalition says that the time is ripe for change.
“If you are using drugs in South Africa, you are almost not considered to be human,” according to Phanini Lebise, a member of Vusubuntu’s steering committee. “You are a drug user before anything else.”
In the past year, South African harm reduction services have been severely impacted by the Trump administration’s cuts to international aid. In the midst of this calamity, a coalition of advocates, legal experts, and people who use drugs (PWUD) have been building towards a landmark moment. On 26 June — celebrated worldwide as the International Support. Don’t Punish Day — the Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Drugs for Personal Purposes will formally launch in Tshwane, Pretoria.
Its aims are unambiguous: “A South Africa which is safe, healthy, and inclusive. A society where no person is criminalised for their drug use.”
The coalition is proposing a programme of decriminalisation of personal drug use and possession in South Africa. It aims to replace the current, punitive approach with drug policy “rooted in compassion, evidence, health, human rights, and social justice.”
Moment of truth
For South Africa, the current moment feels historic. Watching the country’s sex worker and LGBTQ communities organise against the criminal law and advance their rights over decades has been inspiring according to Klaas Mtshweni, a National leader of the South African National AIDS Council Civil Society Forum’s sub-Sector for People Who Use Drugs. Seeing these strides forward, Mtshweni believes that PWUD have too often been left behind.
“We’ve been standing to the side,” Mtshweni told TalkingDrugs, “now it’s our time.”
South Africa has always favoured an abstinence-based system, rooted in punishment and shame. There’s been political resistance to harm reduction since the beginning, and a reliance on drug war tactics that have achieved very little. “The laws punish users for who they are and accessing what’s readily available,” Lebise said, “the government has not, in any sense, managed to stop drugs from entering the country.”
This doesn’t just create a drug-using community who fear incarceration, it also contributes to the spread of disease. “People are still afraid of approaching the healthcare system because they are afraid they are going to be arrested or have their paraphernalia confiscated,” Mtshweni said.
Even the law enforcement agencies are keen for change, according to Charity Monareng, Executive Director of SSDP International and spokesperson for the coalition’s steering committee. The current punitive system just gives law enforcement “the ammunition to violate peoples’ human rights,” she said, all the while creating a backlog in a criminal justice system where the majority of people are there for non-violent drug offences.
“The perception we’ve gotten from law enforcement officers is frustration. Mostly they’re arresting the same people, it’s a vicious cycle” she said. “It achieves nothing.”
In the midst of funding and health crises, ending this cycle is mission critical for the coalition. The organisation will campaign for legal reform, drafting legislation for full decriminalisation for all personal drug use in South Africa. This won’t happen overnight, but short term victories are possible.
“This is an opportune time for us to stand out and stand for decrim,” Monareng added.
Making the case
The coalition is making both a moral and a strategic argument. Crucially, its steering committee members say the groundwork already exists within the government’s own documents: South Africa’s draft National Drug Master Plan 2026-2031, and the National Strategic Plan on HIV, TB and STIs 2023-2028, both contain language supporting decriminalisation. “We have documents from the government that support decrim, it’s just a matter of putting them out to the public,” Mtshweni said.
South Africa’s model of cannabis decriminalisation also acts as a source of cautious hope. In May 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act (CfPPA), a law proposed in 2020 following a 2018 Constitutional Court judgement which declared parts of the Drugs Act and Medicines Act unconstitutional. According to this ruling, laws criminalising the cultivation, use, or possession of cannabis by an adult in private are a violation of someone’s right to privacy.
Cannabis is legal for adults to possess, cultivate, and use in private for personal consumption in South Africa. However, the sale of recreational cannabis and its use in public spaces is strictly prohibited. Medical cannabis is also legal but highly regulated. It took a long fight for drug campaigners to relax prohibitionist laws against cannabis, and the coalition is drawing on this success as a source of inspiration. “We got the cannabis bill signed, which gives me hope,” Lebise said. “It will take time, but eventually we will reach that goal.”
Legal regulation is part of the longer journey; for now, the coalition is laser focussed on decriminalisation – which will be hard enough of a battle on its own. “We are saying decrim because we don’t want everyone to interpret things their own way,” said Mtshweni. “Legalisation is, to be honest, going to be hard.”
Resistance and resolve
The coalition’s launch note ends optimistically: “Together—with government, civil society, private sector, and the people most affected—we can endeavour to dismantle stigma, prevent disease, and redirect public resources to affirm public health, human rights and safety.”
But nobody is under any illusions about the fight ahead. Opposition from prohibitionist civil society organisations, scepticism from government, and even division within the PWUD community itself are all anticipated obstacles. “There is going to be a very persistent resistance to us as a collective,” said Lebise. “They will say we are promoting drug use, which is of course not the objective.”
Mtshweni is equally clear-eyed about the risk of bad-faith engagement. “People might come pretending to support you but are really there to see how best to undermine you,” he said. But the coalition’s response is to broaden rather than close ranks: membership is open to any person or organisation committed to drug law reform, and welcomes open debate.
The minimum ambition for the coalition, says Lebise, is raising awareness of the benefits of decriminalisation. This includes educating PWUD themselves, for whom the details of law reform may still feel unclear.
“If decrim is actually implemented,” he said, “our government will take responsibility for addressing issues that are not just crime related, but are harm and rights related.”
The launch will be held at Sediba Church Community Hall in central Tshwane — near the Sediba Hope Medical Centre — from 11:00 to 13:00 on 26 June.
The road towards decriminalisation is uncertain, unclear, and full of unknowns. Nobody is sure if it will be successful, and even if it is, how long it could take. But South Africa has a long history of radical social transformation and the coalition’s members are sure that decriminalisation has the global evidence and potential to reduce the harms PWUDs face. They acknowledge that it’s not a silver bullet, but that if achieved, it could revolutionise millions of lives.
“I know it’s a long shot,” Lebise admitted, “but it’s possible.”
