Urgent intervention needed to curb foot-and-mouth disease

Image: courtesy of Freedom Front Plus

The sharp increase in cases of foot-and-mouth disease in Gauteng, and surrounding provinces, has reach a critical point and the executive authority has to take immediate and decisive action to curb it.

There has been a particularly marked rise in West Gauteng around Tarlton.

Government is responsible for controlling foot-and-mouth disease, but it is clear that so far, government has failed to effectively contain it.

The national Department of Agriculture’s failure means South Africa is forced to import vaccine from Botswana, which is expected to only be available by the end of January 2026.

Importing the Turkish vaccine Dollvet is also being considered. The delay exposes producers to unacceptable risks. 

Furthermore, it is extremely concerning that the Department is not communicating its planned interventions and timelines to farmers and the industry. This leaves role players feeling disheartened, vulnerable and powerless. 

Meanwhile, stud breeders with established bloodlines and valuable genetic material are incurring severe damage, which has serious medium- and long-term consequences for the red meat industry and food security.

The legislative authority, and particularly the portfolio committees that oversee the executive, has a constitutional duty to intervene and hold the executive fully accountable.

Officials from the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, the state veterinarian and Karan Beef have already appeared before the Gauteng Portfolio Committee on Agriculture.

The Freedom Front Plus, via its chairperson of the Gauteng Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development and Environmental Affairs, will engage with all other provincial chairpersons of agriculture portfolio committees, as well as the parliamentary Oversight Committee on Agriculture, to collectively hold the provincial executive, its departments, as well as the national minister and his department accountable.

Where the executive fails, the legislative authority has to step in and act within its mandate to manage the crisis.

In the meantime, an urgent appeal is made to farmers and feedlots to implement strict biosecurity measures, and join forces with organised agricultural organisations and institutions, such as the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation, and work together on finding practical and sustainable solutions.