Trenton Burch, CEO of Cheeba Africa and Friends of Hemp South Africa, performs a wide-ranging role spanning education, consultancy, advocacy, and culture in the African cannabis and hemp sector. Through Cheeba Africa, he is developing hemp supply chains in the Congo, advancing a major medical cannabis facility in Uganda, and supporting projects across South Africa. A core pillar of his work is the Cheeba Cannabis & Hemp Academy in Johannesburg, which delivers hands-on, full-supply-chain training alongside a holistic curriculum that includes permaculture, mindfulness, and wellness practices.
Beyond education, he runs a consultancy with specialist partners to support complex industry development, as well as a cannabis culture brand and club, Cheeba Delicious, and an industry summit focused on uniting stakeholders across Africa. He also plays an active advocacy role through Friends of Hemp, helping mobilize industry and public pressure that contributed to reversing a proposed hemp restriction in South Africa.
Across the conversation, he emphasizes industry unity, the importance of regulation balanced with accessibility, and Africa’s opportunity in outdoor hemp cultivation and export markets. He is critical of fragmented regulation and dominant industry players, framing cannabis as both an economic development tool and a wellness-driven plant. A recent milestone for his organization was earning higher education accreditation for their training programs after a multi-year process. His broader “wish” for the sector is a more honest, responsible, wellness-focused industry that avoids opportunism and stays grounded in the plant’s social and economic purpose.
