Government

Biggest livestock farming disaster South Africa has ever experienced

Staff Writer

 ·7 Jan 2026

Saai and Agri All Africa Chairman Theo de Jager says the current foot-and-mouth outbreak is the worst livestock farming disaster in South African history.

De Jager is a South African agricultural leader, farmer, and policy advocate, best known for his role in organised agriculture.

Apart from his role as chairman at the Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai) and Agri All Africa, he was also the former President of the World Farmers Organisation (WFO).

He shared statistics to show the rapid increase in the foot-and-mouth disease across South Africa.

The country is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks in decades. It started in April 2025 in KwaZulu-Natal. Since then, it has spread country-wide.

The worst-affected provinces are KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and the North West.

Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has announced plans to vaccinate all the cattle in South Africa from Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) starting in February 2026.

In September 2025, Steenhuisen rejected claims from the Red Meat Producers Organisation that FMD was “out of control.”

A month later, experts sounded the alarm, calling the outbreak one of the most severe in South Africa’s history. This triggered fears of export bans and soaring meat prices.

Despite vaccinating 931,200 animals with vaccines purchased from Botswana for R72 million, the spread of the disease has not been contained.

In November 2025, Steenhuisen admitted there were serious problems. “We must be honest with the public and with our farming sector. This is a battle we are currently not winning,” he said.

On 6 January 2026, De Jager described the current situation as the worst livestock farming disaster in South African history.

“There is very little that farmers can legally do for themselves to combat a state-controlled disease,” he said.

“Not a single responsible official in the Department of Agriculture has yet been held accountable.”

He shared a chart which illustrates the scale of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and why urgent action is needed.

It shows the number of open cases of type 2 serotype of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus in the Southern African Territories (SAT), as reported by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).