The Government of National Unity GNU will tighten regulations on livestock auctioneers to curb and potentially eradicate the spread of foot and mouth disease FMD, Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen said during a visit to Nampo Harvest Day 2025.
This comes after South Africas biggest trading partner announced a ban on beef imports into China earlier this week.
The latest FMD outbreak came at a time when the global agricultural sector was focusing its attention on the second-biggest expo of its kind in the world.
A palpably exhausted Steenhuisen said: Its very important that we get on top of it FMD as quickly as possible.
The latest ban on South African beef has a huge effect on us, he said, especially because it could have been avoided had animal movement restrictions across provincial boundary lines been followed.
Steenhuisen said: Weve traced back some of the cases to an auction in KwaZulu-Natal, and very clearly the regulations are not being followed.
As a result of that, we are taking a couple of interventions and I'll be issuing new regulations that will govern auctions, particularly to make sure we have absolute adherence to regulations.
Non-compliance with FMD curbing measures has been identified as the cause of the spread to Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.
We will be focusing on certain areas where we believe there has been abuse and misuse, Steenhuisen said.
He added that additional proactive measures had been identified.
These include private-private partnership initiatives with feedlots to procure vaccines for FMD.
Law enforcers from the SA Police Service and provincial traffic authorities will also be brought up to speed to enhance the control and monitoring of cross-boundary livestock transport.
However, at the end of the day, what we actually need is a provincial track and trace system.
That is why I am working closely with the RMIS Red Meat Industry Services to find a track-and-trace system to make sure that any animals that are moved anywhere in the country can be accounted for. I think this will have a huge impact on assisting us with disease control.
Steenhuisen also said that tagging and movement registering ought to be tightened up.
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