South African taxpayer is paying double for Foot and Mouth Disease vaccines
28 June 2023
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.