South Africa’s vaccine facility has reached such a critical level that the country has to import vaccines from Botswana

South Africa is currently experiencing one of the worst Foot-and-Mouth Disease outbreaks in decades.

However, it cannot produce the necessary vaccines to protect cattle against it due to the collapse of Onderstepoort Biological Products, a facility was once renowned for its development of livestock vaccines.

“We are working very hard to get OBP back up to standard as it unfortunately cannot manufacture vaccines for Foot-and-Mouth Disease because it lost state laboratory status back in 2016,” Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said.

“As a result, we have to import vaccines from the Botswana Vaccine Institute. But we have now brought in freeze-dryers and OBP will be back online over the next couple of years.”

However, cattle and dairy farmers in South Africa don’t have “a couple of years,” according to Sernick Group chairperson Nick Serfontein.

In an open letter to Steenhuisen, he highlighted that the industry had lost roughly R1.5 billion in export markets in 2025.

Speaking to In Gesprek, Veterinary Network director Dr Danie Odendaal explained that when he was in his final year of studies, the facility was given funding to build the FMD Institute. As a result, the country had access to vaccines.

But by 2006, he said, it had been run into the ground due to mismanagement.

“In 2010, we got funding to develop the facility, and again in 2019. All that happened over that period was that we created a brand new vaccine that was introduced and registered in 2023,” he said.

“The state currently has this vaccine. We have the necessary vaccine for the FMD outbreak, but we don’t have the capacity to manufacture it.”

‘Syndicated corruption’

According to a 2023 report by the Daily Maverick, the Agricultural Research Council, which oversees OBP, received R188 million in 2010 for the facility, followed by a sum of R480 million.

Then, in 2014, another R500 million was approved by Parliament for OBP to upgrade the facility, addressing the lack of vaccine production and poor performance of vaccines.

“OBP has recently faced many challenges, including political interference, lack of expertise, outdated technologies being overtaken by newer, cheaper, safer and more effective technologies from other entities, and crumbling infrastructure caused by a lack of maintenance,” Noko Masipa told the publication.

Masipa was the Democratic Alliance’s shadow minister for Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development in 2023.

“In sum, just over R1 billion of taxpayers’ money was allocated towards livestock vaccine production with nothing to show for it,” he added.

After being appointed CEO of OBP in 2019, Dr Baptiste Dungu found that the vaccine facility project had been stalled for the past five years, a fact that had not been brought to the attention of the Auditor-General of South Africa.

This was revealed in Dungu’s affidavit filed with the Gauteng Labour Court following his sudden dismissal in 2022.

Following an investigation conducted by the AGSA in 2020, several employees were suspended, and many subsequently resigned.

In his affidavit, Dungu pointed to further fraud uncovered involving 26 companies “doing tendered work for the OBP that was procured under suspicious conditions and connected to crucial, decision-making stakeholders, including staff and officials of the OBP.”

He described this as “syndicated corruption.”

In late 2024, Steenhuisen announced that a forensic audit would be launched to determine where the R500 million had gone, as a significant portion was unaccounted for.

“The DA stands with members of the agricultural community in raising our total dissatisfaction with OBP not fulfilling its mandate,” the DA’s then spokesperson Willie Aucamp said.

“It is clear that something untoward is going on at OBP, and this investigation into OBP is therefore welcomed.”

However, this investigation has not yet yielded a report at the time of writing.

Steenhuisen’s 14 million vaccine plan

To mitigate the FMD outbreak, Steenhuisen has proposed vaccinating the entire national herd of roughly 13.5 to 14 million cattle. Two million of these, he says, will be completed by February 2026.

This will prioritise the most affected areas, namely KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga and North West.

However, critics argue that vaccinating that many cattle is not feasible if done by the state.

Not only because of the lack of capacity, but also because it has allegedly failed to consider recommendations from its own task team.

According to Dr Theo de Jager, who is the chairperson of the agricultural interest network Saai, the only way the country will overcome this hurdle is if the private sector takes charge of production.

“One of the wisest things that the minister has done is put together a task team of the best veterinarians, scientists and farmers in the country,” he said.

“However, the department has not accepted a single one of the team’s recommendations. Everything gets blocked. And that is why we are where we are today.”

Odendaal, a member of the task team, echoed De Jager’s sentiment. He said that the team comprises everyone who needs to be there. However, the Director of Animal Health refuses to listen to their recommendations.

The Freedom Front Plus also shares the sentiment that vaccinating the entire herd is unrealistic.

“The Department of Agriculture’s most recent policy is to vaccinate the entire South African cattle population. There are serious questions about the viability of this, though,” the party’s spokesperson for agriculture, Dr Wynand Boshoff said.

“According to an earlier calculation by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, vaccinating the national herd would cost around R5.4 billion. Traceability of cattle on communal and municipal commonage poses an additional practical problem.”

Newsday has reached out to the Department of Agriculture for comment.