Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen at the Karan Beef Feedlot as part of visits to foot-and-mouth disease vaccination sites on 23 June 2025 in Heidelberg. Picture: Gallo Images/OJ Koloti Members of the DA in Gauteng have shown their unhappiness with the handling of the foot-and-mouth (FMD) crisis by party leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, calling for the Gauteng authorities to go it alone and declare a provincial disaster. Gauteng should no longer wait for direction from national government and must use provincial disaster powers to take control of the FMD crisis, said agricultural expert Theo de Jager.
He said the second sphere of government, provinces, was now best-placed to act decisively. De Jager said the outbreak has spread so widely that reliance on national coordination alone has become a liability, particularly for provinces like Gauteng that are at the centre of South Africa’s livestock movement network. “When a controlled disease is present in seven out of nine provinces, the system needs more than policy statements.
“Provinces have disaster powers for a reason. They can mobilise police, close roads and enforce movement controls in a way agriculture departments simply cannot,” he said. His sentiment runs parallel with growing pressure from the DA in Gauteng, which is calling for the province to formally activate disaster management protocols and consider declaring FMD a provincial disaster.
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The party argued that Gauteng’s role as a major thoroughfare for cattle, combined with its concentration of feedlots and abattoirs, makes inaction especially risky. DA Gauteng spokesperson on agriculture Bronwyn Engelbrecht said the province’s geographic position means it is effectively a pressure point for the national beef and dairy industry, regardless of where outbreaks originate. “Even if FMD starts elsewhere, animals move through Gauteng constantly.
From communal areas to auctions, feedlots and abattoirs, this province is a hub. Vaccination alone will not stop the disease if animal movement is not controlled,” Engelbrecht said.
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