South Africa's battle against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is being undermined not by insufficient scientific knowledge or dedication, but by a government that consistently fails to participate. Dr Theo de Jager, Saai's board chairman, maintains that the state's persistent absence poses a far greater danger than the disease itself, describing it as a systemic collapse rather than mere administrative oversight.
De Jager highlighted that when the subcontinent's leading FMD experts, veterinarians, UN Food and Agriculture Organization officials and representatives from the Pirbright Reference Laboratory recently convened to share knowledge and strategies, the Department of Agriculture was conspicuously absent. Every neighbouring country — whether successful or not in managing the disease — participated and sought guidance, except South Africa. Not even the Western Cape, located close to the conference venue, attended or contributed. A senior UN official expressed deep frustration at the situation, stating: "We can sense the tension and frustration. We don't know how to help if the government itself doesn't show up!"
According to Saai, the problem extends well beyond missed conferences. Senior departmental officials routinely fail to attend critical meetings, creating a severe communication breakdown between the private sector and the state. De Jager referenced Dr Danie Odendaal, who before being removed from the ministerial task force, frequently raised concerns about this indifference. "Their absence causes communication gaps, an inability to implement any recommendations, and conflict between the experience and expertise in the private sector and the power and material interests of notorious officials in the deep state of agriculture," De Jager said. He added that the minister's own industry committee shares the same weekly frustration, with no opportunity to engage senior officials on policy matters.
The consequences for the agricultural sector have been devastating. When FMD was detected in northern KwaZulu-Natal in November 2024, an immediate disease management area declaration was required. Instead, five months elapsed before any action was taken in March the following year, by which time the virus had already spread to adjacent provinces. The dispatch of virus samples to the world-renowned Pirbright laboratory was similarly delayed by nine months because responsible officials were absent, and the private sector is legally prohibited from sending samples independently.
De Jager noted that where the disease was once effectively managed through roadblocks and cooperation between the army, police and farmers' associations, the state has effectively vanished from the frontline over the past 15 years. Even after John Steenhuisen revised the vaccination policy in November last year, a regulatory vacuum emerged as no new rules were put in place. Farmers are now attempting to develop their own frameworks and solutions, but without a functioning department, there is no legal mechanism to formalise these efforts.
With the livestock industry at the mercy of an absent state that has lost control of a disease it is legally mandated to manage, De Jager believes the courts may offer the only remaining recourse. "The only hope is that the court will confirm the right for the private sector to enter, in the absence of the state, those spaces which are indispensable for the efficient combating of the disease," he said.
