Yesterday’s court ruling on private sector involvement in the vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is clearly a major victory for livestock farmers.
Together with private veterinarians, they have long been ready to assist in combating this disease. Their efforts were, however, curtailed by a state that wanted to keep control of the process in its incompetent hands.
The requirements set by the court that farmers must ensure best practice are reasonable and can be complied with in cooperation with veterinarians. This follows years during which the Department of Agriculture simply could not get this disease under control — yet still insisted on retaining control.
In the end, much more than disease control was at stake. The question became whether civil society could take over functions that have traditionally belonged only to the state when the state fails to perform them.
It is ironic that the DA’s Minister John Steenhuisen, with the support of several agricultural organisations, wanted to protect the state’s role against all evidence. Credit goes to SAAI, Sakeliga and Free State Agriculture for initiating the legal battle and seeing it through to the end.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus), which more than a year ago already referred to foot-and-mouth disease as a preventable disaster, has consistently pointed out that the private sector’s assistance should be welcomed rather than avoided.
For this party, it is clear that the political question will increasingly be how to compel the state to hand over functions that it can no longer perform to others.
This is a bitter pill for the state-centric ANC and the DA to swallow.
Freedom Front Plus Civic Education: The party promotes civic education among its members and supporters.
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India: You have two cows. You create a new country to banish all your people who might eat them.