In a scathing critique of the Department of Agriculture’s handling of South Africa’s Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) crisis, ActionSA MP Athol Trollip lamented the government’s centralised control of the outbreak.

John Steenhuisen has recently framed accelerated FMD vaccination as a dangerous “vaccine free-for-all”, implying that faster vaccination would inevitably lead to chaos, loss of export credibility, and a collapse of traceability. It is an effective political soundbite. It is also misleading.

Anyone who does not tow the line and instead speaks in the best interest of livestock farmers, rather than serving party politics or the narrow interests of senior government officials who caused the foot and mouth crisis is being fired, excluded, isolated, and targeted.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including all breeds of cattle.

“In a nutshell, I have never felt so dependent on such incompetence,” says Johan* in frustration. His words encapsulate the sentiments of many of South Africa’s farmers confronting an unprecedented Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak.

There are viral voice notes claiming to reveal what the government is supposedly hiding.