E Cape farmers under pressure as foot-and-mouth disease resurfaces

Eastern Cape farmer’s livestock seen as the province faces the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Farmers in Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape are once again under pressure following a renewed outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. This marks a second flare-up in less than a year.

The outbreak has raised fresh concerns about livestock health, movement restrictions and mounting financial losses in the agricultural sector.

ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip is in the area conducting an oversight visit and engaging with affected farmers.

Trollip says he is calling for stronger containment measures and government support.

“We can’t be distributing 12,900 vaccines to the whole country, because the allocation to the Eastern Cape was 2,600. Now, you saw how many farmers were here, and each one of these farmers milks about 1,000 cows. So, let’s say there were 35 farmers here. That’s 35,000 cattle. Where is 2,600 vaccines going to go? They’re not even going to be a drop in the ocean. So, I believe that our minister and his department here need to wake up, that the president needs to declare a national disaster and that they need to fund the acquisition of vaccines and get them into this country as in yesterday,” says Trollip.

Having an intimate knowledge of the impact of the foot and mouth disease outbreak requires first hand experience of what happens to livestock and farming enterprises that are infected. As an ActionSA MP on the Agriculture portfolio committee I went to Humansdorp to see for myself pic.twitter.com/Bu9nOTzL0x

— Athol Trollip (@AtholT) February 10, 2026

There is no substitute for first hand engagement with affected stakeholders regarding the reemergence of F&MD in the Humansdorp region. These farmers were devastated in the last outbreak and fear that they won’t survive another. pic.twitter.com/nFl0EWDeAK

— Athol Trollip (@AtholT) February 10, 2026