Breaking New Ground

"Southern Africa has been largely slow to capitalize on the growing global billion-dollar industry of medical cannabinoid products. One company in Lesotho is aiming to bridge that gap, and has become the first medical cannabis company on the continent cleared to export their pharmaceutical products into the European Union."

- Story and photos by Yeshiel Panchia

In the rolling foothills of the Maluti Mountains surrounding the Katse Dam in Lesotho, the seeds of a green revolution are being sown. The high altitude, facilitative legislation, cultural history and innovation of the country are coming together to support a booming business that aims to supply an exploding global market – that of medical cannabis.

Medical cannabis growery MG Health CEO Andre Bothma laughs as he discusses how he decided to move into the industry.

“My friend said ‘check this out, it looks like the next big thing’.” Bothma had been running a successful business in construction at the time – one of the largest in Lesotho – and was looking for a new opportunity to explore, but was initially hesitant about the industry.

“I’d never even heard of it, but then I started Googling. Every successful business owner needs to get involved in something… but then I started seeing on CNN they were talking about America opening up to medicinal cannabis… we then checked the laws to discover that it was actually legal.”

Lesotho, the landlocked kingdom surrounded by South Africa, became the first country on the African continent to grant an administrative license for the commercial cultivation of marijuana for scientific and medical purposes in 2017, with countries such as South Africa, eSwatini and Zimbabwe following suit, bringing the continent into a global market worth over $7.1 billion by 2023 (African Cannabis Report, 2020).