Relief meets fury as FMD vaccines roll-out accelerates after delay
· Citizen
Farmers remain divided as South Africa’s long‑awaited foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines roll out – some expressing relief at finally seeing progress, others still furious at delays that left their herds exposed.
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Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen insists the “war against FMD is far from over”.
He added that for the first time, the country is setting the pace of the response rather than merely reacting to outbreaks.
“For the first time since this crisis began, South Africa is increasingly setting the pace of the response rather than reacting to the disease,” said Steenhuisen.
He said since February this year, South Africa has procured 13.5 million doses of FMD vaccine and as of 28 May, vaccinated just under 4.4 million animals across the country.
Steenhuisen also announced the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority has approved the Section 21 application for Dunevax to import 14 million doses of the Dollvet vaccine.
The first consignment of four million doses will arrive this month.
“The government has already spent R494 million on vaccine procurement and deployment,” he said.
“KwaZulu-Natal remains at the centre of the vaccination effort with more than 1.1 million animals vaccinated.”
He said the Free State has vaccinated over 600 000 animals; the Eastern Cape over 720 000; Mpumalanga over 430 000; Limpopo over 350 000; Gauteng over 270 000; North West more than 430 00; Western Cape over 260 000 and the Northern Cape over 87 000.
Steenhuisen said while some critics have argued the vaccine roll-out should have happened faster, he argued that for many years the biosecurity systems were largely geared towards reacting to outbreaks after they occurred.
“Despite the challenges posed by FMD, severe storms and ongoing logistics constraints, agricultural exports grew by 7% over the past year, with the citrus industry recording one of its strongest export performances on record,” said Steenhuisen.
The sector generated a trade surplus of about $7.3 billion (about R118 billion) in 2025, an increase of 18% on the previous year, supported in part by the opening of new export markets.
Southern African Agri Initiative CEO Francois Rossouw said if Steenhuisen is proud that the government has procured millions of vaccine doses, then he should also explain why it took litigation to force recognition of the private sector’s right to procure and administer vaccines to safeguard their livelihoods.
Rossouw said the question was not whether the government should play a role.
“Of course it should. The question is why the minister and his department fought so hard to prevent others from helping,” he said.
“He has not explained why it took nine months to get South Africa’s strains to the Pirbright Laboratory and why it took six months to publish a Section 10 scheme.”
TLU SA chair Bennie van Zyl said that finally the department started involving different industry organisations in the fight against FMD.
Van Zyl said for the first time, farmers were seeing a different approach from the department side, even though it has taken so long.