Steenhuisen under fire for 'lethargic' response to FMD crisis

Rome is burning in the agricultural sector; farmers told the court this week in the wake of the government asking for yet another postponement in the legal bid for the private sector to produce and administer foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine.

The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria reluctantly granted the postponement to enable agricultural minister John Steenhuisen more time to publish a vaccination scheme under section 10 of the Animal Diseases Act. But Judge Corrie van der Westhuizen ordered this must be done by May 5. The court set the urgent application down to be heard on May 11. In a sign of the court’s displeasure, it granted a punitive cost against the government.

This is the second time the urgent proceedings were postponed due to the government not being ready to proceed. The matter was set down to be heard on March 24. It stood down until this week and the court in March ordered the minister to promulgate and publish the intended animal health scheme relating to FMD by no later than April 17.

But this was not done and this week the minister and departmental officials asked for more time to finalise the scheme. They wanted the court bid to be postponed to June 2, but the judge had put his foot down.

Judge Van der Westhuizen criticised the minister and fellow respondents for their lethargic conduct. He commented that the FMD outbreak is a matter that was announced by the government to be of national importance and a national emergency. It appears as though the minister and other respondents are no longer considering it to be of such importance, Judge Van der Westhuizen remarked.

Sakeliga, SAAI, and Free State Agriculture who launched the urgent proceedings, vehemently opposed the postponement. Counsel told the court that the government is simply wasting the applicants’ time. This, the court was told, while the animals are dying and while the government has the means to save them by allowing for private vaccinations.

The government is of the opinion that FMD vaccination must be centrally controlled as unregulated private vaccination could affect disease management efforts.

Counsel for the applicants meanwhile told the court this week that the government respondents have used the revived idea of a section 10 scheme as a delaying ploy. A month after the court had set the March 17 deadline, nothing had been done other than asking for another postponement, Judge Van der Westhuizen was told. This, the applicants said, is done in the face of untold suffering and unfolding disaster decimating many parts of the industry.

The department meanwhile said that it did not wilfully undermine the court’s deadline regarding the draft scheme for FMD. Mooketsa Ramasodi, the director general of agriculture, explained that some errors were picked up regarding the draft regulations, and it had to be re-evaluated before it could be sent to the minister for his signature and publication, thus the delay. He assured the court that the process is being prioritised with a view of finalising the scheme.

Sakeliga meanwhile said in a statement that their position remains that there is no impediment in law to privately administering lawfully obtained FMD vaccines. It explained that the litigation seeks to remove the unlawful impediments maintained by the minister, as well as to prevent unlawful government interference with private importation of approved vaccines. “The minister's continued fumbling with a voluntary section 10 scheme is no answer to the relief sought,” it said.

Sakeliga added that while the minister persists with his attempt to uphold a government monopoly and resist a parallel private FMD vaccination track, farmers continue to bear losses that the state has neither the will nor the means to prevent. “The minister’s unlawful obstruction of additional private-sector measures that should already have been deployed at scale and at no cost to the state should be brought to an end,” Sakeliga said.

Cape Times