Court Application to end state obstruction of FMD vaccines
The application follows the failure by the Minister of Agriculture to substantiate his prohibitions on private sector vaccine procurement
Sakeliga, SAAI, and Free State Agriculture have issued an urgent court application to interdict the government’s harmful and unlawful obstruction of private-sector procurement and administration of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines.
The application follows the failure by the Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen to substantiate his prohibitions on private sector vaccine procurement and administration, and his Department’s interference that obstructed and delayed private sector vaccine imports.
The Minister’s and his colleagues’ insistence on state control of all aspects of FMD vaccination, in contrast to the common practice of private procurement and administration of livestock vaccination for other diseases, has caused widespread distress and production losses.
The parties’ application, brought on an urgent basis, has had to contend with extensive delays, obstructions, and complications stemming from the Minister’s conduct and failures since our initial letter of demand on 27 January 2026. This includes:
The Minister’s false statement that he had provided us with written reasons for his policy in response to our letter of demand,
The Minister’s erroneous claim that the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) requires the state to handle and distribute FMD vaccines, and
The Minister’s and/or his Department’s interference in the contracts between private vaccine manufacturers and importers, while publicly denying it.
The state's continued insistence to act as a central point for all vaccine procurement, distribution, and administration is irrational, harmful and unconscionable, given the capability and willingness by farmers and related agri-businesses to save livestock and contain production losses through measures privately funded and applied.
Our legal strategy entails two stages:
The first stage seeks an interdict restraining the state from blocking private individuals from administering registered or authorised FMD vaccines on livestock. It also seeks an interdict prohibiting the state from interfering in the relationships between those who legally import the vaccine into the country and their suppliers.
The second stage will be a review application instituted within twenty days. This review application will seek, inter alia, declaratory relief confirming that there exists no impediment to owners or managers of livestock administering the vaccine, alternatively reviewing and setting aside any such legal impediment that may exist or be created.
Sakeliga and our partners are pursuing this two-phase approach to secure the most urgent legal relief – freedom for farmers, businesses, and veterinarians to obtain and administer approved vaccines – as quickly as possible.
Contrary to Minister Steenhuisen’s averments after our initial letters of demand, the legal proceedings by Sakeliga, SAAI, and Free State Agriculture neither relieves the Department of any of its obligations in relation to FMD, nor in any way prevent it from fulfilling its obligations.
The applicants seek merely to remove the state’s obstruction of additional private sector measures which would otherwise already have been deployed at scale and at no cost to the state.
