/watch?v=sw_0GZdTJQA

While several locations in the world are legalizing marijuana, or cannabis as it is sometimes known, South Africa is tending to lag behind in the trend.

In fact, the smoking of marijuana, cannabis, or “dagga” as it is called in South Africa, is still illegal despite attempts to have it legalized in any form.

However, this didn’t stop André Du Plessis, head of the Cannabis Working Group in South Africa and a cannabis activist, from lighting up a “doobie” or joint live on air during a televised debate.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) didn’t take too kindly to his stunt and has strongly condemned his actions.

According to IOL, the debate was aired on the SABC show The Newsroom, and Du Plessis was shown on a large TV screen at the back of the studio while the interview progressed.

The marijuana activist was obviously upset by the interviewee’s excuses for not working on the legalization of marijuana, especially when David Nayever, deputy chairman of the Central Drug Authority, tried to blame the recent xenophobia attacks in the country for delaying the process of legalization.



To clearly show his disappointment and disbelief in the statements in the ongoing interview between the host, Annine Dormehl, and Nayever, Du Plessis then casually lit up live on the show, as can be seen in the video above.

A spokesman for the SABC, Kaiser Kganyago, did say they were unable to confirm whether it was actually marijuana that the cannabis activist was smoking, but they condemned his actions anyway — smoking is not allowed in the studios in any form.

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“He took advantage of a live show and we do not condone any kind of smoking. Smoking of any kind is not shown on any of our platforms and is not even allowed to be advertised.”

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“He is not a member of staff at the SABC, but we will look into the matter and see how we can take it forward. If it was not live we would have been able to edit it out, but he took advantage of the fact that it was a live show.”

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“I’m going to admit it. During the live interview [on SABC News] you saw the pictures of people smoking it in Cape Town”.

“The only thing I could do was really sit back and smoke a joint.”

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