Under legal pressure from two farmer unions and a business lobby group, Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen has submitted last-minute proposals that could, in practice, open the door to farmers privately sourcing and procuring foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines, subject to veterinary direction.

Under a dysfunctional government, every state function eventually has to be outsourced if it is to keep working. In South Africa, security, health, electricity, water, road and rail, and even criminal prosecutions have, to a significant degree, become the responsibility of private, non-traditional actors.

My herd has been vaccinated. I did not choose the vaccine. In South Africa, that choice is not yours to make. The state selects the product. The state controls the supply. You take what arrives.

Missed deadlines by the Department of Agriculture spark outrage among agricultural organisations, as court proceedings reveal the state’s struggle to manage foot-and-mouth disease vaccination efforts.

Joint Statement by Bennie van Zyl, General Manager of TLU SA, Ina Wilken, Consumer Specialist, Colin Engelbrecht, Chairman of Wildlife Ranching South Africa, Gerhard Papenfus, CEO of the Employers' Organisation Neasa, and Theo de Jager, Chairman of Saai.

Minister of Agriculture: Making BEE Compulsory

John Steenhuisen has recently framed accelerated FMD vaccination as a dangerous “vaccine free-for-all”, implying that faster vaccination would inevitably lead to chaos, loss of export credibility, and a collapse of traceability. It is an effective political soundbite. It is also misleading.

“In a nutshell, I have never felt so dependent on such incompetence,” says Johan* in frustration. His words encapsulate the sentiments of many of South Africa’s farmers confronting an unprecedented Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak.

There are viral voice notes claiming to reveal what the government is supposedly hiding.

Saai, together with Free State Agriculture and Sakeliga, has launched an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court for an interim interdict against the Minister of Agriculture, the Department of Agriculture, and the Director of Animal Health, pending a review application in which the lawfulness of the Minister’s decisions regarding Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine measures will be challenged.

In just two years, John Steenhuisen has gone from being an occasional thorn in the ANC’s flesh to its willing but inept stooge. This unhappy decline — damaging both to the DA and the country — has already cost him the party leadership. It should also cost him his job as the national Minister of Agriculture.

South Africa has spent R494 million on foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease vaccine procurement and deployment, while nearly 4.4 million animals have been vaccinated nationwide, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said on Monday.