EDITORIAL: State control over foot-and-mouth has its selling points

The prudent strategy is usually to support moves to limit the state’s stranglehold over the economy in favour of the more equipped private sector taking control.

But in the instance of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) there is a good argument to support the government’s mission, through agriculture minister John Steenhuisen, to procure and administer vaccines.

Private procurement is a bad idea.

First, the uncontrolled import of unregulated vaccines can introduce new strains of the virus, which some experts suspect happened in previous outbreaks resulting in about three strains being active now. Second, the vaccination campaign by state veterinarians needs to be targeted at hotspots especially when considering that the vaccines themselves are in limited supply. And lastly, meat exporters might be required by importing countries to verify the nature of the vaccine used.

It is for these reasons that the Western Cape government’s request for it to be able to procure its own vaccines is unlikely to succeed.

That said, the production under strict state supervision of vaccines by private sector laboratories ― now prohibited ― should be explored as a way of addressing the critical shortage of vaccines.

One can, of course, understand the frustration and despair farmers feel when confronted by the decimation of their herds as well as their inclination to point fingers at the government for a tardy and ineffective response. Questions may legitimately be asked whether the government acted with sufficient urgency to contain the disease through vaccination and movement control when outbreaks were initially identified at the start of 2025 in KwaZulu-Natal — which remains the epicentre of the epidemic — and then spread rapidly throughout the year to other provinces.

Yes, farmers can and have spread the disease by transporting infected cattle from one area to another in contravention of protocols but were law enforcement officers and municipalities sufficiently informed and mobilised to exercise the necessary control? Was there adequate collaboration between Steenhuisen’s department with other government departments to achieve this? Was there adequate public fencing to prevent movements?

Yes, farmers can and have spread the disease by transporting infected cattle from one area to another in contravention of protocols but were law enforcement officers and municipalities sufficiently informed and mobilised to exercise the necessary control?

Steenhuisen assumed office in the government of national unity only in July last year when outbreaks were already occurring in different parts of the country and would have needed time to develop strategies to deal with the crisis. Did he do enough to stockpile a sufficient quantity of vaccines?

The declaration of a national disaster by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his state of the nation address last week will assist in facilitating this collaboration and in mobilising the necessary resources to combat the disease. The president has established a task team made up of farmer organisations and experts, working with Steenhuisen and the agriculture department, that will report to him every month.

Then there is the question of domestic vaccine production. South Africa’s vaccine production at Onderstepoort Biological Products, the state-owned animal vaccine manufacturing facility, was gutted during the state capture years and the country has had to rely on imports. About 7-million vaccines are expected to have arrived by the end of March. Investment in upgrading and expanding the state’s facility is already under way and is critical if South Africa is not to be caught short again. Earlier this month, the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research facility made the first local production in 20 years of an FMD vaccine (12,900 were produced).

This will be needed especially given Steenhuisen’s decision to launch a vaccination-led strategy to wipe out FMD in the country once and for all instead of the government engaging in ad hoc crisis management. Ramaphosa said the state would centrally facilitate the acquisition of 28-million vaccines over the next 12 months to achieve this goal.