The Eastern Cape’s response to foot and mouth disease (FMD) will stand or fall on whether the province can roll out its allocated vaccines quickly, fairly, and transparently in the areas of greatest risk.
With 150,000 FMD vaccine doses allocated to the province from the national pipeline, farmers need confidence that these doses will be stored properly, distributed according to credible risk criteria, and administered with sufficient urgency to prevent further spread. If this process is poorly managed, both commercial and communal farmers will pay the price through livestock losses, economic disruption, and deepening uncertainty.
The Democratic Alliance has requested MEC for Agriculture, Nonceba Kontsiwe, to urgently publish a full provincial vaccine rollout plan, including district and municipal allocations, deployment capacity, cold chain safeguards, and weekly progress reports on vaccinations administered.
This must be accompanied by clear public reporting so that farmers, agricultural organisations, and affected communities can track whether delivery is matching the risk on the ground.
In response to a parliamentary question from the DA, MEC Kontsiwe said the province is responsible for liaising on the transport of vaccines into the Eastern Cape, overseeing rollout based on risk assessment, and working with veterinary services to administer the programme.
The provincial storage plan relies on the Provincial Laboratory cold rooms in Komani, with contingency support from Makhanda, and the department states that temperature monitoring devices and backup facilities are in place.
The allocation of doses also reveals where the department believes the greatest risks lie. Alfred Nzo has been allocated 55 800 doses because of its proximity to KwaZulu-Natal, while Chris Hani, Amathole, and dairy-linked areas have also been prioritised due to infected farms, communal areas near dairy herds, and active hotspots.
The Milk Producers Organisation has been allocated 28 500 doses for dairy farms around infected herds and first-layer farms.
The department has confirmed that no minimum daily or weekly throughput targets have been set for vaccination teams. Instead, teams are expected to report daily progress, depending on the area covered. In the middle of a disease-control effort of this scale, that is not good enough.
Without measurable targets, proper public reporting, and a credible implementation timetable, there is no way to assess whether the rollout is moving fast enough to contain the threat.
The reply also shows that only 18 private veterinarians have been approved to assist through a national application process, while district teams will vary between two and four teams working daily. That limited capacity raises legitimate questions about whether the province has the operational muscle to deliver 150 000 doses efficiently across multiple high-risk districts and communal settings.
Download the response here
Communal and small-scale farmers cannot be left behind. These farmers often face the greatest exposure to movement-related risks, communal grazing pressures, and weaker access to private veterinary support.
FMD is not only an animal health issue. It is a direct threat to rural livelihoods, food security, agricultural confidence, and the provincial economy. Farmers need a response that is disciplined, measurable, and worthy of the scale of the risk.
The people of the Eastern Cape deserve an agricultural department that acts with urgency, manages outbreaks with competence, and protects both emerging and established farmers from avoidable losses.