President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement last week that the foot and mouth disease outbreak had been declared a national disaster and that the government would speedily roll out 28 million FMD vaccines, will provide some relief to farmers.
What is impossible to understand is why everything needs to become an absolute crisis before government responds appropriately.
SA lost its FMD-free status in 2019. To reclaim that from the World Organisation for Animal Health required “strictly controlled vaccination rollout, official surveillance, strict movement controls, and systematic vaccination coverage that can be documented and verified”.
And government did absolutely nothing.
Not surprisingly, FMD cases jumped from a 20-year high of 7,700 in 2022 to 24,200 in 2025, according to the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP).
Commercial farmers were prevented from acquiring and administering FMD vaccines because the law says this must be done by the state.
That becomes a problem when the state is dysfunctional.
The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) — the two statutory bodies mandated to act in the public interest particularly when it comes to research and vaccine protocols — have not been able to produce an FMD vaccine for 20 years because of collapsed and ageing technology and infrastructure and general mismanagement.
And so, by last year, FMD was out of control to the point that it became the epidemic it is today.
It has taken until recently for government to institute the three vital elements to any breakout of disease — prevention, early detection, and rapid response.
At long last, following years of dysfunction, the ARC and OBP have successfully produced their first 12,900 batches of FMD vaccine.
The agriculture department has moved to secure vaccine imports to supplement local production.
With a national disaster declared, funding should be freed up to keep up this momentum and implement agricultural minister John Steenhuizen’s 10-year plan to eradicate FMD.
But, FMD is considered one of the most economically devastating animal diseases globally and BFAP says the economic fallout of outbreaks on the beef industry could rise to R13.1bn.
The economic impact on dairy farms is estimated at more than R1bn.
The report did not assess the impact of the disease on the pork, wildlife, and small stock industries, which also faced significant losses due to FMD.
And so, while farmers may well be relieved that the problem is finally receiving the attention it deserves, too much damage was done in the intervening years.
The constitution requires government to be responsive, accountable, effective and efficient.
The FMD crisis shows there is still a long road to travel before this is achieved.
