Agriculture and Bio-security - the ticking time bomb for KwaZulu-Natal
24 June 2019
The Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal will soon embark on a series of oversight inspections of the Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique border regions as well as the ports of entry at King Shaka, Port of Durban and Port of Richards Bay in order to ascertain the risk levels posed by bio-security threats coming from outside the country.
The inspections come after a number of bio-security related issues in recent months which the DA believes pose a serious risk to agriculture in our province, both directly and indirectly. More recently, disease such as anthrax as well as foot and mouth disease have shown how susceptible the agricultural sector is to outside threats.
The DA has in the past exposed how animals, and people, move freely across our country’s border with Swaziland on a daily basis. Any one of these animals or people could bring a disease that has the potential to cripple part of or all of KZN’s agricultural sector. One only has to look at the issue of foot and mouth disease and its effects on the meat industry as an example.
Bio-security as threats to the agricultural sector cannot be ignored. They have the potential to force thousands to lose their jobs and to undermine food security in the province. It is therefore critical that government prioritise the allocation of resources in order to stop the free flow of animals, plants and people.