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In January 2022, a group of agricultural organisations and veterinary science experts raised an alarm about the state of South Africa’s animal vaccine production at Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), housed at the Onderstepoort veterinary training centre, northwest of Pretoria. (Daily Maverick - DM 12.1.22.)  This open letter was signed by twelve prominent experts in the fields of veterinary science: this group included former OBP board members, farming association officials, university professors and top people within various animal research centres. Each person was a specialist in his own field.

At the time agriculture was performing relatively well within the South African economy, compared to other sectors. It provided food, employment and much needed exports. But there could be a “black cloud on the horizon”, declared DM at the time, and this looming problem involved one of South Africa’s more important State-Owned Entities. (SOE’s), the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP).

At the time the livestock sector still represented nearly 50% of the total value of South Africa’s agricultural production in terms of turnover. It was (and is still today) an “essential part of food security for South Africa and the southern African region”. (DM,’22). Vaccines are and have been the main products coming out of OBP, controlling a variety of diseases that could otherwise seriously affect the livestock sector in SA.

Farming was always well supported by all South African governments since the turn of the 20th century. Veterinary research facilities were established at Onderstepoort in 1905, growing into various institutions that became world renowned. An outbreak of rinderpest in South Africa in 1896 had precipitated serious research into and the creation of a serum-virus type vaccine to counter this disease. Apart from the rinderpest vaccine, vaccines against blackquarter and lungsickness for cattle and smallpox for human beings were also produced at the facilities.

The history of Onderstepoort is astonishing. It grew into the world’s most efficient and broad-based laboratory of its kind, to the extent that by 1926, several million doses of anthrax, bluetongue, blackquarter and horsesickness vaccines and wireworm remedy were produced. Various diseases such as sweating sickness, infectious anaemia, bovine contagious abortion and “snotziekte”, as well as disease conditions caused by external and internal parasites, were researched and the extensive results were published in the Director’s Reports. This ground-breaking information found its way into laboratories throughout the world.

South African research capabilities were (and have been) historically very good. They created conditions for farmers to thrive on a continent where farming can be notoriously difficult. Many of the vaccines produced at OBP are not available anywhere else in the world. Thus, SA farmers have had no one else to turn to other than to OBP for vital vaccine supplies.

Associated with these early laboratories were lands sufficiently large to produce green fodder for the experimental animals – 9400 tons of green fodder were reaped from the lands in 1926. Further land was purchased and more than 1700 animals (sheep, goats, cattle, horses and mules) were housed at Onderstepoort.  This vaccine story was truly an astounding achievement by a small band of dedicated men at the tip of the African continent whose actions and foresight enabled South Africa to develop an industry that could evolve to world standards without the pestilences so evident in particularly the rest of Africa.

AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

Fast forward to the ascension to power in 1994 of the African National Congress (ANC), lauded by the world and certain sectors of South Africa as “a new beginning” for a country which had grown to become a first world state, despite its troubled history and the uneven capacities inherent within its population.

In hindsight, we have learnt over the past thirty years that everything the ANC touches turns to dust. Centralised control is the party’s clarion call, and it didn’t take long before the government set its sights on Onderstepoort and OBP.

In 1999, the ANC government introduced a Bill in parliament entitled “Onderstepoort Biological Products Incorporation Bill, No. 37B- 99”, emanating from the ANC’s Minister of Agriculture at the time. The aims of the new Bill were, inter alia:

“To provide for the establishment of a company to manage the institution known as Onderstepoort Biological Products, the appointment of directors, the holding and disposal of shares in the company, the transfer of personnel to the company and the transfer of funds and assets in the company, and to provide for matters connected therewith”.  This takeover was set in stone, and it didn’t take long before the ANC fingers dipped into the cookie jar. In 2014, R500 million was given to the OBP to build a new vaccine plant compliant with national and international regulatory requirements.  Some of the money, purportedly R100 million, was used to upgrade offices, install a private toilet for the CEO, build a new canteen and increase salaries for the vastly inflated labour force (jobs were created for political pals). But no one could account for the balance of R400 million. It simply disappeared and to date no one has been brought to book for this theft.

REPUTATION WOBBLE

The OBP’s reputation took a dive as control under the government took on the slippery slope template that had affected so many other SOE’s within the South African economy. The ANC rot had set in and deliveries were delayed. “They appeared to have ground to a halt. The news spread that OBP was effectively defunct as a vaccine company.” (DM ’22). In 2017 the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries had appointed a new OBP board. This led to the hiring of some foreigners who tried to correct the decline, while the experienced and honest former employees were thrown to the wolves. It became clear to all that no matter how much an SOE declined under the ANC’s policy of “cadre deployment”, it was not a problem for the government. Political loyalty has always been more important than efficiency in the ANC’s book.

(The government strategy of cadre deployment became official policy in 2017 and has been under the personal supervision and control of president Ramaphosa since then. It will not change whatever he tells the public, while yet another municipality bites the dust, or another government department runs out of money.)

In 2020 the board’s term expired and new people were brought in. “Very few of these people had any experience in the field of vaccine production or even agriculture.” (DM ’22). True to type, chaos set in. The CEO was placed on suspension, and the minister appointed an interim CEO who resigned after a few months. The usual musical chairs of changing personnel became the norm, and the concomitant disruptions and machinations resulted in vaccine provision taking a dive, with production becoming a hit and miss affair.

FAST FORWARD TO EARLY 2025.

South Africa’s national herd is estimated at around 14 million animals. The news of the 2025 outbreak of foot and mouth disease in South Africa reverberated around the world. Bloomberg, the BBC, CNN, Reuters, the World Health Organisation, the World Food Program and agricultural groups world-wide realised what the repercussions of this catastrophe would be. Exports would be crimped, as would local supplies not only to South Africa but also to the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) with whom SA has trade agreements. Africa is a meat-eating continent.

“The peaceful and lush, rural landscape in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province disguises the anxiety that is stalking the land”, declared the BBC on 20 February 2026, reporting on how foot and mouth disease in cattle was crippling herds across South Africa. “This is the epicentre of a foot and mouth disease outbreak that has – in the past year – swept across eight of the country’s nine provinces, devastating animal herds, with many cattle being killed to halt its spread.  Farmers are fearful that they could lose their livelihoods altogether as other countries take action to stop the import of South African animal products.”

The blame for this catastrophe can be laid at the door of the South African government which has allowed vaccine production in the country to collapse. This was a direct result of legislation that all foot and mouth vaccines in the country must be manufactured and distributed under its control. All very well if a country has a sane government; the ANC cannot be classified as anything other than grossly obtuse, inefficient and worse, even being unable to manage, maintain or control the simplest of tasks. Their lack of urgency and the inability to make quick decisions, never mind their inadequacy in planning for the future, is unfortunately in their DNA. This mentality exists in many other parts of the undeveloped world, particularly in Africa. The results of this DNA are empirically clear when one assesses just how these countries measure up in the 21st century. They are at the bottom of the totem pole, and the South African powers that be have brought South Africa down to this level.

Since many sectors of the country have collapsed, thousands of responsible citizens have stepped in to fill the gaps. This cannot be accomplished however in agriculture, especially with regard to the question of animal vaccine control. Since the ANC abrogated to themselves the task of managing this vital task, they have been unable to meet their obligations in terms of their own legislation, with devastating consequences for food security in SA.

WARNINGS

The ANC has been warned for years about the country’s foot and mouth danger. The current Minister of Agriculture who is a member of the Government of National Unity (GNU) was warned in December 2025 of the looming disaster. In response he seemed to have absorbed by osmosis the lethargy inherent in the ruling classes: he focused instead on planning a vaccination programme for the next ten years!

In the meantime, day by day, minute by minute farmers were losing their cattle hand over first because of the lack of vaccines and the lack of urgency being displayed by the government and specifically the Minister of Agriculture. The BBC reported that “foot and mouth vaccines need to be imported AS SOUTH AFRICA NO LONGER HAS THE CAPACITY TO PRODUCE THEM EN MASSE”. (emphasis ours). (BBC 20.2.26)

Of course, South Africans can produce vaccines. South African farmers and scientists and veterinarians can produce and manage anything that is needed to produce what they do to sustain the country’s food security. They have been doing so for more than a hundred years. But when the production of vaccines – this vital element crucial to a functioning agricultural industry- fell into the hands of the ANC, this capacity dried up. Hence the scramble for vaccines. It was a matter of life and death for thousands of farmers and the animals themselves. Ministerial prevarication, government’s stultifying lack of urgency and the fact that there were hardly any emergency stockpiles, left farmers frustrated, angry and worse, fighting for their animals and for their very livelihoods. This had never happened in the history of South Africa.

TO THE COURTS

It took a group of concerned agricultural organisations and business groups to approach the courts as a matter of extreme urgency in February 2026, to counteract the lack of immediacy by the minister of agriculture and the government to provide vaccines and, importantly, for the government to provide for “unsupervised private vaccination against foot and mouth disease”. (PoliticsWeb 24 March 2026). The court ordered the Minister of Agriculture to finalise a scheme to allow for unsupervised private vaccinations on or before April 17. The court accepted the urgency of the situation and set the matter down for a further hearing on April 28th,

What is more bizarre and unfathomable to farmers has been the Minister of Agriculture’s “obstruction of private foot and mouth vaccination procurement and administration”, as set out in court documents by the applicants. (PoliticsWeb 24.3.26). Given the delays, disruptions, official lethargy and other hindrances, it is at least positive that this catastrophe is being handled by the courts. In the meantime, vaccines are being imported and distributed on an ad hoc basis, hardly a remedy to impart confidence to the livestock industry as to what their future holds. One thing is certain- the importation//manufacture, distribution and vaccine inoculation for foot and mouth disease in South Africa must be removed from the grip of ANC government control as soon as possible. The status quo cannot be allowed to continue. The country’s food security is at risk.

TLU SA will comment further after the court’s decision of April 28th. Damages must be assessed in terms of what the government’s negligence has caused to South African agriculture, and to the wider food chain participants. This vaccine tragedy must never happen again.