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File: Workers spray disinfectant spray on cattle on a farm.
Free State Agriculture has echoed calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare the Foot-and-Mouth Disease outbreak a national disaster.
The sector has been severely affected by the ongoing outbreak, which continues to spread across the country.
It is disrupting agricultural trade and threatening food security.
Free State Agriculture manager Jack Armour says the President and Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen must fast-track the vaccination programme and cut bureaucratic red tape that is delaying the availability of vaccines.
“Some of the top manufacturers in the world have got over 5000 000 doses waiting for us to bring into the country, but we’re waiting for paperwork. So, we really hope that the president in his State of the Nation Address, when he outlines the government’s program of action, will very clearly state the role that all the different departments need to play, that you will state that foot and mouth disease is a crisis, and that we all need to work together to address this crisis because it can potentially address food security, job creation, export markets, foreign income generation. So, there’s a lot of spinoffs that this foot and mouth disease crisis can have for everybody.”
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