{"id":847931,"date":"2026-01-15T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=847931"},"modified":"2026-01-19T07:58:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T05:58:43","slug":"new-state-of-disaster-on-the-cards-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/847931\/new-state-of-disaster-on-the-cards-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New state of disaster on the cards for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, announced that he will table a declaration of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak as a state of disaster at the next Cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, 15 January 2026, Steenhuisen outlined the national strategy for containing foot-and-mouth disease in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a clear roadmap for the protection of our national livestock herd and the restoration of South Africa’s international standing in the agricultural sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since losing its foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)-free status in 2019, South African farmers have faced unprecedented challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have received many pleas for help, from commercial to communal farmers, who have borne the heavy burden of the recent outbreaks in the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI must be frank with the nation: achieving FMD-free status is a monumental task that will not happen overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steenhuisen said the strategy will be phased over ten years, beginning with stabilisation and consolidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will then move towards the eventual withdrawal of vaccination and final recognition of national freedom through vaccination by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI need to emphasise that vaccination is not a silver bullet to eradicate or manage this disease. It is merely one of the tools to combat the disease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The targeted vaccination will prioritise high-risk zones, with the goal of reaching at least 80% coverage in targeted cattle populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-quality vaccines with high potency will be used during the campaign, especially the trivalent vaccines of SAT 1, 2, and 3, which are currently circulating in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steenhuisen added that he wants the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak declared as a state of disaster, which will allow for a better and less constrained response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the state of disaster will allow them to get better cooperation from the police and traffic departments to assist with the movement control of animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many organisations are calling for a state of disaster<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Steenhuisen\u2019s announcement followed calls from the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) and the Southern Africa Agri Initiative (Saai) to declare the outbreak a national disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saai said this would bring critical benefits to struggling farmers and accelerate the containment of the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saai added that the financial survival of family farmers must be placed at the centre of all efforts to combat the disease and to limit its severe economic impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saai CEO Francois Rossouw explained that declaring the FMD outbreak a national disaster would enable faster mobilisation of national resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A declaration would enable the government to rapidly deploy supplies, equipment, vehicles and facilities to affected areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would also strengthen vaccination campaigns, as well as roadblocks, checkpoints, disinfectants, and the overall response capacity to the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VF Plus also called for a state of disaster to be declared in response to the widespread outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The party stated that its ultimate goal is to restore South Africa\u2019s status as a country free from foot-and-mouth disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being free from foot-and-mouth disease means the local livestock industry will regain access to all international markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes, among other things, restoring South Africa\u2019s capacity to manufacture vaccines for the specific strain of the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Freedom Front Plus welcomed Steenhuisen\u2019s plan of action, it emphasised that implementation is what truly matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe core issue is that every element of the plan announced today was already possible without a state of disaster,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is also consistent with the recommendations that successive ministerial task teams have proposed since 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe steps the Minister announced today have, therefore, been recommended and possible since 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article has been amended<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, announced that he will table a declaration of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak as a state of disaster at the next Cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":847933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[24501,24154,20147,24514,24504],"class_list":["post-847931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-foot-and-mouth-disease-2","tag-freedom-front-plus-vf-plus","tag-john-steenhuisen","tag-minister-of-agriculture","tag-southern-africa-agri-initiative-saai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847931"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848176,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847931\/revisions\/848176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}