Statement on the Continuing Outbreak of FMD in South Africa

The EFF notes with serious concerns the continuation of the Food and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak, considered to be one of the most problematic animal diseases because it is a contagious and very harmful to cloven hooved or even-toed ungulate livestock of both domestic and wild animal breed.

The disease has been endemic in South Africa for a very long time, yet there is no practical, sound and coherent response to detect, mitigate and stop the spread of the diseases.

This disease has become more common and widely reported in recent times because of the widespread emergence of cattle breeding and increased trade in farm animals which involves movement and transportation of cattle between areas and across countries.

Currently, six out of nine provinces are reported to be affected by the FMD. Despite that this disease is known and there is a history of its existence and an accumulated body of medical knowledge exists at the disposal of the South African government, particularly the department of Agriculture, for years, has been found wanting and failed the agricultural industry.

The department has been negligence and irresponsible in the handling of the FMD despite overseeing the Onderstepoort Biological Products, a Veterinary Research Institute which is the only authorised FMD testing facility and mandated to detect, prevent and control animal diseases; to develop scientific, vaccines capacity for all animal diseases and specifically the FMD.

Since assuming the Ministry of Agriculture, the DA, and the GNU’s Minister Steenhuisen have declared ‘war’ on the FMD, drumming up support under various news headlines through newspaper articles. Despite promises of decisively confronting the disease, nothing has come out of such promises and time-bound deadlines.

Each time there is an outbreak of FMD the department finds itself faced with major challenges such as limited vaccine availability, delays in diagnostic results and uncoordinated outbreak management. As a result of this structural disorganisation and lack of leadership and policy direction, the minister of Agriculture, Mr. Steenhuisen and his department, have been out of depth and overwhelmed by the FMD outbreak.

For years on end, South Africa has been unable to produce enough vaccines and left with one option but to import considerable volumes of FMD vaccines from Botswana.

The EFF notes that on the 6^th of November 2025, Minister Steenhuisen established a Ministerial Task Team which outlined six priority areas which include epidemiological field services; diagnostics and surveillance; research; vaccination; feedlots and auctions; and market access for combating the spread of FMD.

What is unacceptable though, is that, each time there is an outbreak of FMD government has the habit of convening press conferences to outline plan to respond to the disease without any sustainable not workable solution in respect of the six priority areas, paying lip-service to the crisis without meaningful measures to concretely curb the spread of the disease through the six priority intervention outlined.

Whiles large livestock farms have appropriate infrastructure to detect, mitigate and quarantine their animals, the same cannot be said about small-scale, emerging farmers who have no such sophistication and support at their disposal as they depend entirely on government, alternatively, they are left with no option but to cull their livestock.

The EFF notes calls by commodity bodies, agricultural unions and grassroots, smallscale farmers for consistent implementation of the six priorities, shared intelligence and rapid response across the board.

While the current crisis has not reached endemic proportions, and still within control, the EFF calls on the department of Agriculture to speedily build internal capacity for the production of the vaccines with required volumes, through existing agencies such as the Agricultural Research Council and Onderstepoort Biological Products. It is totally unacceptable for a country of the population size of SA’s livestock which is bigger than Botswana, to depend wholly on Botswana for FMD’s vaccines.

The EFF’s financial resources are crucial for its campaign activities and outreach.

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