26 JUNE 2026: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa’s first national coalition dedicated to ending the criminalisation of drugs for personal use launched today at the Sediba Church Community Hall in Tshwane City Centre. The Vusubuntu Coalition brings together Lawyers for Human Rights, public health practitioners, civil society organisations, faith and traditional leaders, community structures and people who use drugs. The launch takes place on International Support. Don’t Punish Day and signals a coordinated national effort to shift the country’s response to drug use toward constitutional and public health principles.
A constitutional problem that can no longer be ignored
South Africa’s drug control framework is still based on the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act of 1992. This law was inherited from apartheid era policing and its enforcement patterns remain racially unequal. The Constitutional Court has described South Africa’s drug enforcement history as “replete with racism”, a finding made in its 2018 judgment in Minister of Justice v Prince(¹). This places the current statutory framework under direct constitutional scrutiny. Criminalisation of personal drug use infringes the rights to privacy, dignity, equality and access to healthcare. These infringements are visible in national data. According to the South African Police Service Annual Crime Report (2022–2023), more than 162 100 drug related offences were recorded, and most were for possession for personal use. Enforcement is concentrated in historically Black and so called Coloured communities including Mitchells Plain. Among people who inject drugs, HIV prevalence has reached 72.1 percent in Tshwane, according to the TB HIV Care Bio Behavioural Survey (2023). Criminalisation disrupts continuity of care and increases exposure to HIV and TB risks. These findings are confirmed by the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society Harm Reduction Guidelines (2020).
“South Africa’s drug laws were constructed in a context of racialised control, and their effects remain deeply unequal today. The Constitution requires that laws which infringe privacy, dignity, equality and access to healthcare be revisited. Decriminalisation of personal use is the logical extension of the Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence.”— Nyeleti Baloyi, Lawyers for Human Rights
The legal pathway to decriminalisation
The Coalition presented a clear legal route for Parliament to follow. Parliament must begin a transparent review of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act of 1992. Amendments must remove criminal penalties for personal use and possession by adults while retaining penalties for supply and sale to minors. National Treasury must model cost savings and reinvestment into treatment and harm reduction. The National Drug Master Plan must be updated to reflect decriminalisation and ensure national coordination. A phased transition must expand treatment and harm reduction services and include workforce development and monitoring. This pathway is grounded in the Constitutional Court’s 2018 judgment in Minister of Justice v Prince, which held that criminalising the private use, possession or cultivation of cannabis by adults is an unjustifiable infringement of the right to privacy. The Court’s reasoning is substance neutral and raises significant constitutional questions about the continued criminalisation of other substances for personal use.
Human impact and public health consequences
The Coalition emphasised that criminalisation has not reduced drug use or improved community safety. Instead it has increased harm and deepened inequality. Researchers in Portugal demonstrated that decriminalisation reduces harm without increasing drug use, as documented in the British Journal of Criminology study on Portugal’s reform (Hughes and Stevens, 2010). Artenie and colleagues demonstrated the impact of South Africa’s harm reduction programmes through their 2024 Lancet HIV article, HIV incidence and factors associated with HIV risk among people who inject drugs engaged with harm reduction programmes in four provinces in South Africa. Their retrospective cohort study found an HIV incidence rate of 11.8 percent among people who inject drugs across four provinces(²).
“People who use drugs are our sons and daughters, parents, partners, friends and neighbours. They deserve care, compassion and the chance to live healthy and meaningful lives. The Coalition brings people together to build solutions that strengthen families, protect human rights and create safer and more inclusive communities.” — Charne Roberts, SANPUD
The Vusubuntu Coalition represents a coordinated national effort to align South Africa’s drug laws with constitutional rights and modern public health evidence. Its members include legal experts, public health practitioners, community structures, faith and traditional leaders and people who use drugs. This breadth of representation signals the scale and seriousness of the reform effort.
“Criminalisation was intended to protect society. After forty years of evidence, the question is whether it has achieved that goal. The evidence shows it has not: people are not safer, communities are not healthier, and children are not better protected. The alternative is not doing nothing, it is adopting a more effective response that protects families, restores dignity, and allows criminal-justice resources to focus on violent and predatory crime that causes the greatest harm.” — Charity Monareng, Vusubuntu Spokesperson and Executive Director of SSDP International
Conclusion
With the Vusubuntu Coalition now formally launched, South Africa has a coordinated national body presenting a clear constitutional and statutory route to decriminalising personal drug use. The jurisprudence is established. The evidence is compelling. The legal pathway is defined. The next step lies with Parliament.
Issued on behalf of the Vusubuntu Coalition:
- Phumlani Malinga | dugganmalinga@gmail.com |
References
- ¹ Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others v Prince (Clarke and Others Intervening); National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Rubin; National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Acton (CCT108/17) [2018] ZACC 30; 2018 (10) BCLR 1220 (CC); 2018 (6) SA 393 (CC).
- ² Artenie A, Stowe MJ, Mukandavire C, et al. HIV incidence and factors associated with HIV risk among people who inject drugs engaged with harm reduction programmes in four provinces in South Africa: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet HIV. 2024;11(12).
About the Vusubuntu Coalition
The Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Drugs for Personal Use in South Africa is a broad-based alliance of civil society organisations, legal experts, public health practitioners, community leaders, faith and traditional leaders, and people who use drugs working collectively for systemic policy reform grounded in compassion, evidence, human rights and social justice.
ENDS
