(Photo: John Steenhuisen/Facebook)
The FF Plus demands an urgent investigation into an e-mail sent by Jana le Roux, chief of staff to the minister of agriculture, in which a request from the industry organization FMD Response SA about the foot-and-mouth crisis (FMD) is apparently described as a source of “entertainment”.
The email, which has been widely circulated on social media in recent days, was addressed to the Department of Agriculture’s director-general, Ramasodi Mooketsa, and the deputy director-general for agricultural health, Dipepeneneng Serage.
Oops! This is how seriously Steenhuisen and team mean their assurances that ‘the door is always open to farmers’. A request from the farmer organisation FMDResponse SA to co-operate more closerly with the department – inadvertently copied back to the senders. Steenhuisen must… pic.twitter.com/gKLZ7ajSBq
— WSM (@TheJaundicedEye) June 8, 2026
This follows after FMD Response SA, which represents more than 250 farmers, approached the department with proposals for closer cooperation between the state and the private sector in the fight against BKS.
In the email Le Roux says “Attached just receive for some amusement”.
The party says the email confirms that the minister, his office and the department are not taking the agricultural sector’s input on the BKS crisis seriously.
“This indicates a deep-rooted and reprehensible disregard for the industry’s efforts to find solutions together for one of the biggest agricultural crises that South Africa has experienced in decades,” says the FF Plus.
The party argues that BKS is by no means a joke.
“This is a disaster of enormous magnitude that already has far-reaching economic consequences for producers, exporters and the wider agricultural economy.”
The FF Plus demands that the department investigate the origin of the email and that disciplinary action be considered.
However, according to the party, it will not be sufficient to place the blame on one individual.
“An entire cultural change in the department is necessary. This will be difficult to happen without accountability at a higher level,” believes the FF Plus.
John Steenhuisen, Minister of Agriculture. (Photo: John Steenhuisen/Facebook)
FMD Response SA pleads for cooperation
Meanwhile, FMD Response SA confirmed the email and said that the organization is still prepared to work with the Department of Agriculture to combat the outbreak.
“The only way we are going to win BKS is through close collaboration between the state and the private sector,” said Andrew Morphew, spokesperson for FMD Response SA.
According to Morphew, involvement and cooperation is essential to ensure that all cattle are vaccinated in time against the highly contagious disease.
The organization insists that the state and the director of animal health should allow vaccine importers to make vaccine available directly to private veterinarians.
Currently, vaccine is mainly distributed by the state to selected organisations, but FMD Response SA believes it should be available to every farmer in the country.
“This will be possible if importers can supply the vaccine directly to private veterinarians, as is already happening with vaccines against other diseases.”
The organization further says that the current vaccination rate is too slow to quickly bring the outbreak under control.
According to FMD Response SA, vaccinations must take place within a period of six to eight weeks so that cattle develop simultaneous immunity and the virus cannot spread further.
“This requires the state to vaccinate communal herds, while allowing commercial farmers to vaccinate their own cattle within the same short time frame.”