LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Public-private partnership key to FMD vaccination drive

Charles Cadman’s rather confused letter refers (“LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”, June 10).

Since I assumed office South Africa has for the first time a clear strategy to deal with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). This strategy will ensure we end the uncertainty caused by the current outbreak, which began in 2023 (before I took office) and ensure that this is the last major outbreak of FMD in South Africa. The strategy is already yielding early fruits with beef exports to some countries recommencing.

Cadman makes a number of assertions that are just patently wrong and must be corrected. The private sector has been totally involved in the strategy from day one. In fact, the private sector and industry players were part of the very conference that helped craft this new pathway.

For the first time in South Africa the previous vaccine monopoly has been ended, and thanks to our efforts, the country is now sourcing vaccines from a number of suppliers worldwide, including a local private sector company.

From day one millions of vaccines have been provided by my department, free of charge, to industry bodies, private veterinarians and private sector organisations that have been assisting in a huge public-private partnership to roll these vaccines out across the country. A campaign of this scale ― the largest animal vaccination initiative yet undertaken ― would not be possible without the important partnership we have forged with the private sector vets and sectoral organisations.

Cadman rather unfairly tries to hold me accountable for an unsatisfactory telephonic response he received from a Free State vet when he knows full well that provincial veterinary services do not fall under my authority but are an exclusive provincial competence.

Despite the ongoing misdirected sniping by the likes of Cadman, my department and I will continue to do the work of procuring the millions of vaccines required to reach our goal of mass vaccination, and we will continue to work with our private sector partners and veterinarians to ensure we vaccinate as many animals as possible.

The goal is to end this current outbreak and attain the status of “FMD free with vaccination”, thereby opening up over 97 markets for our red meat sector that have been closed for more than 20 years. While FMD did not begin on my watch, I will end it on my watch.

John Steenhuisen, MP

Minister of agriculture

‘DA difference’ in Joburg has been precisely zero

Though a single swallow never made a summer, well done to the DA for winning a township ward for the first time (“Why Evaton is not yet a blue wave”, June 11). The challenge now is to show the DA difference. Which, in my experience, is exactly zero.

I live in a Johannesburg ward that has only ever been DA (or one of its antecedents) for 30 years or more. The ward is a disaster on every front. The string of DA councillors over the years has been utterly incapable of fixing or influencing anything.

Phones never answered. WhatsApp merrily fires back a long list of the same city incompetents you’ve already been calling, unsuccessfully, for years. Meanwhile, millions have been paid over in rates and taxes.

So, while I wish the DA well, I imagine the residents of Evaton will soon be experiencing a feeling of déjà vu the moment they put their first call through to their new ward councillor.

Stuart Meyer

Via Business Day online

Time for accountability over costly talk shops and unmet promises

On June 10 last year President Cyril Ramaphosa announced to great fanfare his fancy new R700m “National Convention” ― a national dialogue billed as involving all South Africans in a conversation to rescue and save South Africa.

This despite that we already have 490 expensive MPs who are elected to parliament every five years ― not counting nine provincial legislatures, each with its own set of expensive MPLs, a premier, cabinet of 10 and a speaker — and thousands of councillors and mayors across the land. Yet still our president and the ANC claim to not know what is bothering South Africans.

A whole year later and what has been achieved? An expensive and glitzy one-day wonder talk shop last August from The Hollow Man, and then … nothing.

I said a year ago that Ramaphosa’s plan to convene a national convention was just another disappointing step in his long history of plans and promises that have all come to naught.

And so it has come to pass. Can we please have our R700m back?

Mark Lowe

Durban

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