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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes a major milestone for South Africa’s agricultural biosecurity: the restart of vaccine production at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Onderstepoort Veterinary Research campus, the first batches of vaccine being produced under DA Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen.

After 21 years of ARC not producing Foot and Mouth vaccines, the turnaround of this capacity is a remarkable step forward for South Africa.

This breakthrough comes in the midst of one of the worst Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks in decades, since the disease began spreading in 2019.

The local production of vaccines, under DA Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, is a very welcome development.

The DA strongly supports the Minister’s call for FMD to be declared a national disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act.

The long term neglect of vaccine production in South Africa – a 21 year history of this – had led to vaccines against FMD being one of the major constraints to addressing the disease.

For too long, instability at ARC and Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) undermined South Africa’s vaccine security. Both institutions faced governance instability, declining production capacity, deteriorating infrastructure, delayed maintenance, financial strain and audit concerns, loss of technical expertise, and repeated delays in vaccine availability during critical disease periods. Farmer trust was eroded, and South Africa became increasingly dependent on fragile international supply chains for essential animal health products.

We see the restarting of production by the ARC as a hugely positive change after 21 years.

While 2 million animals had been vaccinated by the end of January 2026, the additional capacity from ARC can bridge the gap until imported vaccines arrive in South Africa.

This is precisely why restoring domestic production capacity is so important — and why the restart of vaccine production at ARC under Minister Steenhuisen is a turning point.

The history of delays at ARC has been hugely problematic. In 2010, ARC presented Treasury with a business plan for a new state-of-the-art FMD vaccine production facility, which was endorsed by the then ANC Minister of Agriculture. Treasury allocated R492 million in the 2011/2012 financial year and, in 2019, provided a further R400 million shortfall allocation. Yet the project was halted in 2021 after irregularities with subcontractors were revealed, despite 56% of the project budget already being spent.

A Parliamentary Question by the DA in 2024 revealed that construction was expected to start in early August 2024.

It is very unfortunate that Minister Steenhuisen inherited a deeply compromised system, but we are now seeing more steady institutions, fixing critical infrastructure, rebuilding technical capacity and restoring credibility. At the same time, Minister Steenhuisen has tightened movement controls, enforced Disease Management Areas, activated rapid response teams, strengthened quarantine and slaughter protocols, and gazetted tougher regulations in June 2025.

The restart of vaccine production at ARC is the product of sustained reform and hard operational work — and a concrete signal that South Africa is rebuilding the institutional capacity required to strengthen biosecurity and respond to animal disease outbreaks swiftly and effectively.

Issued by Desiree van der Walt MP - DA Member on the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture