John Steenhuisen mum on missing R500 million

As South Africa’s agriculture industry faces one of the biggest crises in its existence, Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, has kept silent on his Department’s missing R500 million, which could have prevented the current situation. 

The country is facing an unprecedented outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which began in 2021 and reached levels of national disaster in 2025,  resulting in the deaths of thousands of animals and the loss of livelihoods for many farmers. 

While animals rarely die as a direct result of the disease, secondary effects can be extremely dangerous, resulting in weight loss, hooves and teats blistering and rotting, mastitis and death.

Farmers in South Africa’s hands have been tied in protecting their cattle, because oot-and-mouth is classified as a state-controlled disease in legislation dating back to 1984.

This means that only the government may procure and distribute vaccines. Farmers are prohibited from procuring or distributing vaccines, even if they can afford them. 

However, the government facility that should be supplying farmers with the vaccine, Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), has collapsed. 

This has forced the government to import vaccines to fight the current outbreak, but these vaccines require additional doses and are not being rolled out fast enough to combat the crisis. 

At a press briefing on 14 January, CEO of the Agricultural Research Council, Litha Magingxa, admitted that the facility is not able to produce the required vaccines.

During an interview with BizNews, ActionSA MP Athol Trollip said that this facility used to be world-class.

“It used to be an iconic South African establishment that provided vaccines to South African farmers and also farmers across the continent and even the world. Now we can’t do that anymore,” he said. 

World class vaccine facility crumbling

Trolip, who attended the Departmental press briefing, said that OBP used to produce a couple of thousand vaccines a week, when outbreaks were much less intense

The vaccine production facility was built in 1980. The Department of Agriculture, according to Trollip, found that the establishment had become so outdated that it n eeded to decommission it and build a new facility in 2013.

This new facility would meet good manufacturing standards and allow South Africa to increase vaccine production and exports.

This upgrade, however, appears not to have happened, despite R500 million in taxpayer money having been allocated to the revamp. 

When Steenhuisen was sworn in as Minister in July 2024, he said that he was very concerned about this project.

“A large part of the R500 million went missing and is unaccounted for,” he said. He promised to conduct a forensic audit to reveal where the money went. 

The Democratic Alliance, Steenhuisen’s party, further commented that “it is clear that something untoward is going on at OBP, and this investigation into OBP is therefore welcomed.”

However, over a year and a half since supposedely launching the investigation, there has been no feedback on the investigation and the missing money. 

Trollip questioned the Minister on the missing money, but when asked by Alec Hogg if he had any clarity about what happened to the money, he said that one should look at the other developments in the South African political landscape. 

“Money gets frittered away, especially through the tender processes, and people enrich themselves,” he said. 

National state of disaster

Northern Cape provincial leader of the Freedom Front Plus, Wynand Boschoff, said that a ministerial task team was appointed by then-minister Thoko Didiza in 2016 as OBP began to decline.

However, recommendations from the task team were never followed, production at OBP continued to decline and resulted in today’s crisis. 

OBP received a qualified audit for the 2022/2023, 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 financial year, but Steenhuisen said in Minister’s Forward for the entity’s annual reports that OBP has advanced its renewal by purchasing two new industrial freeze-driers. 

Newsday reached out to the Department of Agriculture for an update on the upgrade process at OBP, as well as the forensic investigation launched 18 months ago, but did not receive a response by the time of publishing.

Veterinarian Andy Lund described the current situation to BizNews. “We are seeing animals where the hoof wall peels off completely. They are walking on bone. That is not survivable,” he said. 

“The mental toll on farmers who have to shoot their own livestock for a disease that is preventable is devastating.”