BREAKING: SOUTH AFRICA’S FARMS ARE UNDER SIEGE. While a deadly virus rips through the nation’s livestock, farmers are being told their hands are TIED BY THE GOVERNMENT. This is a full-blown agricultural EMERGENCY, and the man in charge, Minister John Steenhuisen, is rolling out a plan that takes a DECADE while farms burn TODAY.
The shocking truth? Foot-and-mouth disease is classified as a state-controlled disease. This means desperate farmers are FORBIDDEN from protecting their own animals. The government holds all the power, and critics say the response has been a catastrophic failure of urgency. “Farmers are left to their own devices,” warns Dr. Lindie von Maltitz, revealing they get information from UNRELIABLE sources because the state isn’t talking.
The evidence is damning. Experts point to ignored task teams, a critical shortage of veterinarians, and a refusal to implement immediate life-saving measures like roadblocks to stop infected animal movement. “The recommendations of previous task teams were also ignored, which could have saved us a lot of pain,” von Maltitz states bluntly. The private sector is begging to help vaccinate, but red tape is costing precious time.
Who pays the price? YOU DO. This crisis threatens food security and has already shut down vital export markets. Farmers are facing ruin, with consultant Emma Kean warning that in the ten years of Steenhuisen’s plan, “farmers will be out of business.” The government’s silence is deafening—Steenhuisen’s office refused to comment on allegations he ignored expert advice.
This isn’t just about sick animals; it’s about a broken system that protects political careers over the people who feed the nation. One question haunts every expert and farmer: if the state has the sole power to act, and refuses to act with the speed this disaster demands, is this incompetence… or something far more deliberate?
The country is being bled dry by a plague our leaders have the power, but not the will, to stop.
Edited for Kayitsi.com
Author: Kayitsi.com
