Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has warned that South Africa's current approach to foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is "no longer fit for purpose", calling for a systemic overhaul of the country’s disease response model at the opening of the national FMD Indaba on Monday, 21 July.
Held at the ARC-VIMP campus in Roodeplaat, the two-day event brings together stakeholders from government, academia and the livestock industry to address the recurring FMD outbreaks that continue to impact trade, job security and national biosecurity.
Livestock industry under pressure
"It is both a pleasure and a necessity to open today’s Foot-and-Mouth Disease Indaba, a crucial gathering at a time when South Africa's livestock industry is under immense pressure," Steenhuisen said. "Not just from the biological spread of disease, but from the consequences of policy failure, institutional fatigue and an outdated response model that no longer meets the scale or complexity of what we face."
He described the country as being "held hostage by a broken system", noting that the response to recent FMD outbreaks revealed “severe delays in vaccine availability, confusion over movement controls, and an alarming lack of readiness at several levels of government”.
According to Steenhuisen, the absence of a functional regionalisation framework means the country as a whole is penalised during localised outbreaks. “Exports of cloven-hoofed animals and their products were suspended or slowed. Jobs were lost. And the reputational damage to our animal health system will take time and action to repair.”
Veterinary leadership and regionalisation framework
The Minister announced the appointment of two senior veterinarians, Dr Emily Mogajane and Dr Nomsa Mnisi, to lead the development of a national regionalisation framework.
"Their work will focus on defining and operationalising regional disease zones, supporting provinces to assume their responsibilities under the Animal Health Act, and strengthening interdepartmental capacity to process export and import applications swiftly and credibly," said Steenhuisen.
He added: “It is unacceptable that South Africa takes years to respond to import health questionnaires, delays that have cost us market access and weakened our negotiating position. This is not a regulatory issue; it is a capacity issue.”
Vaccine procurement and private sector co-financing
Steenhuisen noted that vaccine availability during the most recent outbreak had been inadequate and reliant on imports from Botswana. He stressed the importance of co-financing models with industry players to secure vaccine supply in advance of future outbreaks.
“Onderstepoort Biological Products currently lacks the infrastructure to produce FMD vaccines at the scale and speed required,” he said. “We are stabilising OBP, but that will take time.”
He called on the red meat, dairy and game industries to begin co-financing vaccine procurement. “We must build a nationally managed but jointly funded vaccine bank, not only for FMD, but for lumpy skin disease, brucellosis, Rift Valley Fever, and other controlled diseases affecting trade and production.”
Infrastructure and research investment
The Minister also highlighted poor infrastructure as a barrier to enforcing disease control, noting that illegal livestock movement was often the result of limited access to local abattoirs and feedlots.
"To address this, we will be earmarking funds to support the establishment of feedlots and abattoirs within the protection zones, particularly in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga," he said.
He further committed to strengthening scientific research and development, including a new partnership between government and the National Agricultural Marketing Council to earmark a portion of statutory levies for R&D.
Working together
"This Indaba is not about apportioning blame. It is about fixing what has gone wrong and building a system which can withstand the next outbreak and the one after that," Steenhuisen said.
He confirmed that a dedicated team would be appointed to consolidate proposals from the Indaba and develop a time-bound operational plan. "Let us use today to be honest about what has not worked. Let us bring forward ideas that can scale. And let us commit – not only in theory, but also in budget lines and action plans – to building a livestock economy that is competitive, credible and secure."
