The Agony of Negligence: Why Steenhuisen Must Answer for the FMD Crisis

This is not just an economic crisis; it is a cruelty crisis.

Right now, across South African farms, animals are dying in unimaginable agony.

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is not a simple flu. It is a horrific wasting disease. When a cow is infected, blisters form in the mouth and on the feet. Eventually, the tissue dies and sloughs off. We are seeing cattle whose tongues have literally peeled away, leaving them unable to eat or drink, slowly starving to death while drooling in pain. We are seeing animals whose hooves have separated from the flesh, leaving them crippled, unable to stand, and writhing in the dirt.

This torture is preventable. But it is happening because Minister John Steenhuisen and his department have failed to do their job.

The Human Cost of Helplessness Behind every suffering animal is a South African farmer standing, utterly helpless. Imagine watching the herd you raised from birth disintegrate before your eyes. You want to help them, but there is no vaccine. You want to sell them to save your farm, but the "Red Zone" restrictions trap you. Farmers are not just losing money; they are losing their minds. The emotional toll of shooting your own livestock to end their misery—while facing financial ruin—is driving a mental health crisis in our farming communities. Men and women are breaking under the weight of a disaster that did not have to happen.

A Crisis of Paperwork, Not Nature The most infuriating part of this tragedy is that the solutions exist, but the Minister has locked them behind red tape.

The Pirbright Failure: To fight this virus, we need to know exactly what it is. The Pirbright Institute in the UK is the world’s leading expert on these diseases. They are ready to help match our virus to the right vaccine. But the Department of Agriculture has failed to send the samples simply because they haven't signed the "Material Transfer" paperwork. We are fighting a war blindfolded because the Minister can’t manage his admin.

The "10-Year" Insult (The Vaccine Blackout): On January 14, Minister Steenhuisen finally broke his silence—not with emergency aid, but with a "roadmap" to solve this crisis over 10 years. This is a slap in the face to farmers burying their herds today. He promised 1 million vaccine doses a month. But the math exposes this as a lie: our feedlots alone require nearly 300,000 doses a month just to operate, and the national herd needs over 56 million doses annually for immunity. His "solution" leaves the vast majority of South Africa’s livestock completely unprotected. We don't need a decade-long policy paper; we need medicine now.

The Demand: End the State Stranglehold. If the State cannot provide the vaccine, they must get out of the way. We demand the immediate right to private procurement. Farmers are willing to pay for their own vaccines. The private sector has the logistics, the cold chain, and the international contacts to flood the country with the necessary doses. The only thing stopping us is the Minister’s refusal to allow it.

Steenhuisen Must Go: When animals suffer in unimaginable agony and an entire industry is brought to its knees because farmers are actively prevented from helping themselves, that is not governance—that is tyranny.

He has failed. Every day he remains in office, more animals suffer the torture of FMD, and more farming families face ruin. We demand a leader who cares enough to act.