Steenhuisen Misleads Farmers on FMD Vaccine Access and Control

In a media statement last week, Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen hailed the handover of locally produced foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines as a “breakthrough” and a decisive shift toward defeating the disease. This characterisation is false.

The vaccine in question is not new, not recently developed, and not the result of any fresh policy intervention. It was produced in earlier years and formally registered in 2022.

The media release of the vaccine sought to create the impression that farmers are finally gaining access to the tools they need to fight the virus. This is also misleading as the state refused to release the vaccine’s intellectual property to private producers, insisting instead on exclusive state-controlled production, which is very constrained. The policy of the government is, in practice, therefore to continue to deny vaccine access in order to safeguard state manufacturing institutions from competition.

Steenhuisen’s claim that he and his department “will stop at nothing” to support farmers is directly contradicted by their own actions. A minister genuinely focused on farmer survival would prioritise rapid mass production through licensed private manufacturers. Instead, the department has chosen to preserve a state monopoly that has repeatedly failed to meet demand.

The statement is misleading for a third reason too. It asserts that the department has no objection to private actors importing vaccines. This is also false. Private imports must be authorised by the state, and these authorisations are discretionary, tightly controlled, and in many cases simply not granted. Without authorisation, imports cannot occur and vaccine supply remains constrained. Saying the department has “no objection” while withholding the legal approvals required to act is a textbook example of misrepresentation by omission.

The cumulative effect is that farmers are being told one story while the government’s action suggest virtually the opposite. They are told of new breakthrough vaccines becoming available, that the state is acting decisively, and that the private sector is welcome to assist.

In practice, the minister himself has had access to the South African vaccine since coming to office in 2024, production remains artificially bottlenecked, imports remain restricted, and farmers remain exposed.

The Common Sense has been told that President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is himself a successful cattle breeder, has reached out to some of the country’s most successful farmers to be briefed on exactly what is going on and on what needs to be done. The advice he has received is that the department is restricting vaccine access and private sector participation and that rapid demonstrable changes need to be introduced to fix that.

The near-universal advice of industry leaders and experts remains that private participation in vaccine production, sourcing, and administration is necessary to manage the spread of the virus.