Foot-and-Mouth-Disease rages on while Saai and Steenhuisen embroiled legal battles

The Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai) has expressed its serious concern and disappointment following Minister John Steenhuisen’s media conference last week on the foot-and-mouth disease (FD) crisis.

According to Saai, the conference failed to present the necessary solutions for farmers who are currently facing a survival crisis and raised more questions than answers. Farmers expected firmer more decisive, clear and practical action to get their farming operations back on track and to gain certainty on how the national control strategy will be rolled out. 

Francois Rossouw, Saai CEO says, the scale of the crisis is clearly greater than what the Department of Agriculture understands or has the capacity to manage. He reiterates that trust in the department among farmers is currently extremely low.

“The industry is expected to believe that the very officials who caused the crisis must now lead them out of it. Furthermore, there has been no indication of consequences for officials who failed to safeguard the integrity of control measures or to ensure the availability of vaccines.”

Rossouw says the announcement that future vaccine supplies will also be sourced from Brazil and Turkey is welcomed as good news. “South Africa urgently needs as much supply as possible in the short term. Saai warns that if the state does not urgently supplement its capacity to produce locally developed vaccines by outsourcing production to private laboratories, the organisation will be compelled to force the state to do so through legal action.”

Rosssouw says Saai welcomes the request to declare the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak a national disaster but points out serious shortcomings in the current approach. The absence of a strategy for stray cattle in informal settlements and communal areas, together with the collapse of law enforcement and infrastructure relating to the impounding of livestock, undermines the credibility of the national strategy.

In a statement Saai states that farmers have set out the following twelve core requirements for the minister: 

1. A clear plan for financial assistance to affected farmers to survive while their operations are effectively paralysed. 
2. Information on how the national state of disaster will make a tangible difference to the dairy, red meat and pork industries. 
3. The promulgation of emergency regulations to mobilise more than just departmental resources. 
4. A uniform inventory of manpower, vehicles, equipment and vaccine availability in each district for effective deployment.
5. The structuring of a partnership between the state and the private sector to align all stakeholders.
6. A clear process in each province and district for communication, logistics and execution.
7. A comprehensive resource plan and budget in which livestock farmers themselves play an active role.
8. Greater flexibility to expand vaccine production beyond state laboratories into the private sector in order to increase output exponentially.
9. Recognition of farmers’ capacity to vaccinate their own livestock and keep records thereof to save time and costs. 
10. More information on planned record-keeping and monitoring systems. 
11. A proper communication system to address the frustration of farmers who are left in the dark.
12. A review and finalisation plan to prevent gaps in the national vaccination campaign. 

Saai rejects Minister Steenhuisen’s allegations that agricultural organisations are spreading disinformation or exploiting the crisis for membership recruitment. Such statements demonstrate how out of touch the minister is with realities on the ground. Organisations that ask critical questions do so because farmers understand that the state does not have the capacity to lead them out of this crisis without assistance.

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Finally, Saai finds it inappropriate that the minister criticised organisations such as the Milk Producers’ Organisation (MPO) for approaching the courts to secure better access to vaccines. It was precisely this pressure that forced the department, after more than a year, to broaden its procurement focus beyond Botswana alone.

Saai, along with Free State Agriculture and Sakeliga, has taken legal action against the Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen, seeking an urgent High Court order to stop his department from blocking private vaccine imports and enabling on-farm vaccinations.

Saai argues that the government’s response has been slow and that farmers should be allowed to independently procure and administer vaccines to protect their livelihoods as FMD losses mount.

Steenhuisen has criticized these groups, accusing them of exploiting the crisis for political gain and “Afri-MAGA” branding, warning that legal challenges could disrupt the national vaccination campaign.

The afflicted parties aare seeking an urgent order to lift restrictions that prevent farmers from privately importing and administering FMD vaccines. They argue the government’s “gatekeeping” and “red tape” are causing mounting financial losses for farmers. The Minister maintains that FMD is a state-controlled disease under the Animal Diseases Act of 1984. He argues that a “free-for-all” private rollout would jeopardise the scientific framework needed to regain “FMD-Free Status” from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

He has accused Saai and other lobby groups of exploiting the crisis for “membership recruitment” and “litigation” during a national emergency.

 The Minister maintains that FMD is a controlled animal disease governed by the Animal Diseases Act (1984), requiring a coordinated, state-led response rather than a “free-for-all” of private vaccines that could pose risks. 

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Minister Steenhuisen announced that the government will cover the full cost of FMD vaccines for the national herd to alleviate financial strain on farmers.

The government has sourced over 1 million vaccines from Argentina and 1.5 million from Turkey, with millions more promised in March this year. Steenhuisen reported that vaccinations are currently underway in all provinces, including in the Free State.

The disease has spread across most of the country, with over 370 outbreaks reported in the Free State alone by March. The department has shifted to a “FMD-Free Status with Vaccination” strategy, aiming for a 10-year eradication plan.

Efforts are being made to resume local production of FMD vaccines at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Onderstepoort Veterinary Research. The government is focusing on strict movement controls and official veterinary vaccine administration.