EC vaccination rate and cannabis initiative may be its first green shoots of hope

The Eastern Cape is near the bottom of the pile when it comes to effective provincial administration.

Its roads, especially in rural areas, are in dreadful condition, its medical service collapsed in the Covid tsunami last year and, now, its premier is alleged to have personally benefitted from public money intended for a memorial service for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Perhaps, then, the provincial rural development agency wants to inhale some optimism, after becoming the first government agency to put out a public tender for cannabis seeds.

These will be used, it says, to stimulate the commercialisation of low-grade dagga in the province.

The intention is that the cannabis be used for hemp and for producing medicinal compounds containing the active ingredient in the plant, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Yet, humour aside, this programme may be just what the province needs to improve the lives of some of its people.

Cannabis can be grown in relatively harsh conditions – good news in a drought-stricken province like the Eastern Cape – and by small-scale producers.

The Eastern Cape is leading the country in another way, too: it has the highest vaccination rate.

That and the cannabis initiative may be its first green shoots of hope.