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Staff Reporter
The uMngeni Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has introduced property rates rebates for farmers affected by the country’s foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mooi-uMngeni said on Monday that although municipalities had no direct mandate to manage animal disease outbreaks, they could support local economies.
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The party welcomed the initiative by uMngeni mayor Chris Pappas and his team.
The latest outbreak started in early 2025 and has spread to seven of nine provinces, battering farmers and exports.
China, previously the country’s third-biggest beef export market, banned South African red-meat imports in May. Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia have imposed their own bans. The financial loss has been estimated at over R5.6 billion.
uMngeni has also rolled out measures aimed at supporting disease control and enforcement, the DA said.
These included restriction control signage, assistance with animal identification ahead of vaccine rollouts, training programmes to support the South African Police Service (SAPS) enforcement role, education at dip tanks and with communal livestock associations, and the opening and maintenance of four municipal livestock handling facilities.
The party said the municipality was also engaging traditional leaders to secure buy-in across rural areas, ensuring the availability of a large-animal pound facility with quarantine capacity.
The municipality was also boosting public awareness through initiatives such as a community farmers’ FMD WhatsApp group, it said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday that government had decided to vaccinate the national herd of 14 million cattle, requiring 28 million vaccines over the next 12 months, and that the state would facilitate central acquisition of vaccines to ensure the correct strain-specific doses.
He said government would work closely with the private sector to enable an efficient rollout and ensure commercial, private and communal farmers had immediate access to vaccines, while a task team of farmer organisations and experts would report to him monthly on progress.
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“We have classified foot-and-mouth disease as a national disaster and will be mobilising all necessary capabilities within the state to deal with this crisis,” Ramaphosa said.
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