AfriForum negotiates with role players to privately take on procurement of FMD vaccines
AfriForum is currently engaged in negotiations with expert role players to help facilitate the private sector’s procurement, sale, and distribution of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines. This strategy forms part of the organisation’s countermeasure to the government’s excessive and irresponsible centralisation of power in relation to the national FMD crisis, which is being implemented at the expense of the agricultural industry and consumers.
In a lawyer’s letter sent by AfriForum to John Steenhuisen, Minister of Agriculture, the civil rights organisation makes it clear that although the Animal Diseases Act 1984 lists FMD as a state-controlled disease, it “should not be interpreted to mean that the state should address the FMD crisis without participation of the private sector.”
AfriForum emphasises that the state does not have the capacity to take on the enormous task of procuring and vaccinating approximately 28 million doses of vaccine without the help of the private sector. The organisation therefore insists that private enterprises and institutions, such as AfriForum, should also be allowed to undertake the procurement and distribution of vaccines. Furthermore, AfriForum argues that a vaccination strategy adopted by the government should also allow for the vaccination of animals by private veterinarians and competent farmers.
According to Lambert de Klerk, AfriForum’s Environmental Affairs Manager, the government’s monopoly on the administration of FMD vaccines by state veterinarians and state veterinary technicians is irrational. “There are at most 500 state veterinarians and an unknown number of technicians available to carry out the intended 28 million vaccinations within just six months – this mammoth project is simply unfeasible without the involvement of the private sector. It is doomed to fail if the private sector is not given the right to intervene as well,” he explains.
Therefore, to resolve the crisis, AfriForum insists that Steenhuisen must make the responsible decision in adopting regulations for the handling of FMD and give the private sector and farmers the right to take on certain tasks in the handling of the crisis themselves.
In addition to the involvement of the private sector in the procurement, distribution, and administration of vaccines, AfriForum argues that the Minister should provide clarity on the quarantine of vaccinated animals or animals diagnosed with FMD. Some government sources argue that such animals should be quarantined for a year. “Quarantining herds for a year will financially ruin farmers and cause unprecedented damage to the industry, although there is no logical reason for a year-long quarantine,” De Klerk emphasises.
“It is in the interest of farmers and consumers that private institutions and businesses help to avert this crisis that is currently threatening to bring the agricultural industry to its knees. Clinging to power now is in no one’s interest,” De Klerk concludes.
AfriForum has given Steenhuisen five days to respond to the organisation’s demands.
