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A reply to a written DA parliamentary question by the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, has revealed that the state owned Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) buys Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccines for 1,201. 73 Pula (R1 682.42) from Botswana and resells them to the South African government for R3 022.21, which is more than double the wholesale price.

What the OBP fails to acknowledge is that the South African taxpayer would not be paying such exorbitant amounts for the vaccines had the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) kept production levels up to meet local demand.

A project to improve the FMD facility was approved in 2014 but work only started recently after many false starts and excuses which delayed the production of vaccines. The fact that it has taken 10 years to get working on this important product, shows that the ANC government is not at all concerned about food security or the concerns raised by farmers.

If anything, the ANC has destroyed the infrastructure of a world class OBP facility by letting institutional decay take root which led to the departure of top talent. The institution is now on life support and unable to meet demand for vaccines in South Africa.

It is simply unconscionable that, for a country with high unemployment and thousands of veterinary graduates with no jobs, the ANC government sees it fit to outsource the production of vaccines to other countries. Despite a willingness by the private sector to partner with government in vaccine production, the ANC government has remained steadfast in protecting OBP’s monopoly.

The DA still reiterates our call that the government must collaborate with the private sector on animal vaccine production by allowing the latter to use some of OBP’s vaccine strains to produce enough vaccines for the local market. Our country’s agriculture sector and food security depend on it.

Issued by Noko Masipa MP - DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development