Border Green: Cannabis Smuggling Routes Then and Now
By Michael Jooste
There’s a saying in some border towns: “If you know, you know.” For decades, cannabis smuggling has been part open secret, part survival hustle, part rebellion—and always, a little dangerous.
From the mountain passes of Lesotho to the highways of KwaZulu-Natal, cannabis has travelled in boot soles, mealie sacks, petrol tanks, and false floors of long-haul trucks. And while the world’s gone a bit greener, many of the old routes still exist.
South Africa, with its long borders, rugged terrain, and proud cannabis-growing history, has always played a central role. This is the story of how the plant moved—then and now.
A Short Walk Through History
Back in the day—long before local stores offered R500-a-gram “boutique flower” in glass jars—cannabis was grown in rural parts of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland (now Eswatini), Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. It was transported by foot, donkey, or combi across provinces and borders, often under the noses of police or border patrols.
Smuggling routes weren’t random. They followed trails used for generations—paths carved out for cattle, trade, or migration. These footpaths through the Drakensberg or Eastern Cape valleys became invisible lifelines for cannabis couriers.
One former smuggler, who only gave his name as Musa, shared in a local interview in 2018:
“We used to walk for two days. I’d carry 30kg of dagga on my back, wrapped in plastic and maise meal sacks. The mountain was dangerous, but the police were worse. If they catch you, they beat you. If the mountain beats you, at least it’s quiet.”
Lesotho’s highlands, rich in cannabis crops, became a hotspot. Farmers would dry the product, wrap it tightly in balls or bricks, and hand it off to couriers—young men mostly—who’d trek across into South Africa by night.
The Role of Taxis and Long-Haul Trucks
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, the industry got smarter. It wasn’t just mules walking across borders anymore. Minibus taxis, cross-border buses, and freight trucks became the new mules.
Taxi drivers would get paid extra to hide packets of cannabis under seats or inside modified compartments. Some truck drivers developed elaborate setups: false panels under their loads or concealed stash points inside the chassis.
A retired driver from the Durban-Johannesburg route, Fanie, told a journalist in 2017:
“I wasn’t a drug dealer, man. I was just making rent. Sometimes you get paid more to carry a few parcels than for the actual freight. You drive 12 hours, and they pay you double if you keep quiet. What must a man do?”
Police roadblocks were a constant concern. But not everyone was caught. Some drivers had “arrangements.” Others relied on charm, small bribes, or just plain luck.
Border Posts and Blind Spots
Borders like those between South Africa and Lesotho, or Mozambique and Limpopo, were ideal smuggling zones. The terrain was often difficult to monitor, and the formal border posts were under-resourced.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg mountains acted as a cover. Thick vegetation, remote paths, and local knowledge gave smugglers the upper hand.
In Mpumalanga and Limpopo, the bushveld provided similar cover—smuggling from Mozambique into Nkomazi or Giyani became almost routine.
But smuggling didn’t just involve the growers and runners. Corruption at checkpoints, collusion with officials, and criminal networks all played a part.
Global Context: Smuggling Wasn’t Just a SA Thing
While South Africa had its footpaths and bakkies, other parts of the world had their own methods.
In Colombia and Mexico, cannabis moved in massive convoys or even via planes and submarines. In the U.S., smugglers once used catapults and drones to fling weed over the Mexico-Texas border.
In Europe, smugglers hid cannabis in fruit shipments, frozen meat containers, or fancy cars on ferries between Spain and the UK.
Smuggling, for all its risks, was often just a symptom of cannabis prohibition. When there’s demand and no legal supply, people get creative.
The Modern Shift: Legalisation, Loopholes, and Leftovers
In recent years, the game has undergone significant changes. Legalisation and decriminalisation in parts of the world have slowed some smuggling, but not all of it.
In South Africa, small-scale personal use was decriminalised in 2018. But this didn’t magically erase smuggling routes. Legal loopholes, unclear regulations, and limited commercial infrastructure mean there’s still a thriving informal trade.
For example:
- Cannabis from Lesotho is still smuggled across to Gauteng and KZN, even though Lesotho has legal cultivation for export.
- Illegal syndicates continue to move bulk product through national roads using couriers and runners—just better disguised than before.
- In cities, backyard growers sometimes “over-harvest” and sell their excess to underground networks that distribute it wholesale.
A 2022 report by ENACT Africa noted that South Africa remained one of the continent’s biggest producers and transit points for cannabis, with large quantities still trafficked domestically and into neighbouring states.
Old Routes, New Rules
Today, the same routes through the Drakensberg, Limpopo, or the KZN-Eastern Cape corridor are still in use—but now they’re harder to trace. With better tech, encrypted messaging, and smarter packaging, smuggling has become more subtle.
Meanwhile, police continue to conduct raids, but their focus shifts depending on political will, public pressure, or corruption levels.
And then there’s the rise of the “legal-but-shady” game—companies with partial licenses, dubious paperwork, or legal fronts that sell into both legal and illegal markets.
What’s Next?
South Africa stands at a crossroads. With increasing pressure to regulate and commercialise cannabis, the lines between smuggling, entrepreneurship, and survival blur.
Some believe that full legalisation and clear supply chains could finally dismantle the smuggling networks. Others worry that poor rural growers and informal traders—those who carried the trade on their backs for decades—will be left behind by big business.
A Greener, Fairer Future?
The cannabis industry in South Africa has deep roots—some legal, some not. Smuggling has always been part of that story, shaped by borderlands, poverty, creativity, and survival.
As the legal market grows, the hope is that those who once walked barefoot over mountains with 30kg on their back can now walk into a boardroom—or at the very least, a co-op.
But for that to happen, policymakers need to take the full story into account—not just the new licenses, but the old paths too.
Because in this business, the roads may change—but the people don’t forget how they got there.