Note to Editors: Please note Sakhile Mngadi, MPL sound bites in English and isiZulu
The DA in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is extremely concerned by the unchecked spread of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) across the province, which has now escalated into the largest and most destructive outbreak in KZN’s history.
What was once a veterinary challenge has become a full-blown agricultural disaster threatening farmer livelihoods, food security, rural employment and South Africa’s export credibility.
The scale, speed and geographic reach of the outbreak in KZN now meet the threshold for an immediate declaration of a Provincial State of Disaster. Such a declaration is no longer optional, it is essential to unlock emergency disaster funding, cut through bureaucratic paralysis and enable rapid, life-saving interventions for affected farmers.
The DA in KZN welcomes Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen’s intention to declare a national disaster. The minister has further outlined a scientifically rigorous national containment strategy. This includes targeted mass vaccination, access to high-potency trivalent vaccines (SAT 1, 2 and 3), emergency Section 21 procurement mechanisms, local vaccine production through the ARC and OBP and enhanced surveillance and traceability systems.
KZN, identified as one of the hardest-hit provinces, must now urgently operationalise this strategy at disaster-response scale.
Declaring a provincial disaster will allow;
• Immediate release of National Disaster funding to compensate affected farmers, strengthen provincial veterinary services and expand surveillance and diagnostics capacity
• Emergency procurement of vaccines, bypassing slow and rigid government supply-chain processes, to ensure rapid access to imported and locally produced vaccines already identified at national level
• Accelerated mass vaccination programmes across communal, commercial, feedlot and dairy operations, in line with national coverage targets
• A comprehensive biosecurity enforcement plan, including the joint deployment of SAPS, the SANDF and accredited private security to enforce strict movement controls, shut down illegal livestock trading and halt all non-essential transportation of cattle in and through KZN
KZN’s FMD crisis cannot be managed through routine departmental processes. It requires a disaster-level response, full cooperation between government and the private sector and uncompromising enforcement on the ground. Failure to act decisively now will result in irreversible economic damage and the collapse of thousands of farming enterprises.
KZN’s agricultural economy – and the livelihoods it sustains – must be treated with the urgency this disaster demands.