The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng will formally request the immediate activation of the Gauteng Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC), through the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), in response to the escalating Foot-and-mouth Disease (FMD) crisis in the province.
The PDMC already has mechanisms in place for this, and it should be activated immediately, while national processes run in parallel.
The National Government has taken decisive steps to secure vaccines and set a science-based strategy. This proactive step will go a long way to ensure that all livestock is vaccinated and protected against FMD. Gauteng now requires a coordinated provincial command structure to implement, enforce, and sustain disease control measures on the ground.
Curbing the movement of affected animals during this FMD outbreak is critical and must be enforced.
Gauteng is a high-risk province for FMD due to intensive livestock movement through feedlots, auctions, abattoirs, and transport corridors. The current fragmented response is insufficient to manage a disease of this scale and complexity.
Activating the PDMC will:
• Enable centralised coordination across departments;
• Unlock provincial response powers under the Disaster Management Act;
• Allow for rapid mobilization of law enforcement, including SAPS and traffic authorities; and
• Strengthen enforcement of animal movement controls in line with the Animal Diseases Act, 35 of 1984.
This is not about creating new laws; it is about making existing laws work.
Vaccination alone cannot stop FMD if uncontrolled animal movement continues. A functioning Disaster Management Centre will support:
• Roadside and route-based enforcement operations;
• Monitoring of auctions, feedlots, and informal trading points;
• Enforcement of permit and traceability requirements; and
• Protection of compliant farmers from illegal and reckless movement of cloven-hoofed animals.
Without enforcement capacity, responsible farmers are unfairly exposed to continued risk.
COGTA is the statutory custodian of disaster management coordination in Gauteng. The DA will therefore write to MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Jacob Mamabolo to ask him to convene the PMDC structures without delay, assess the FMD outbreak as a provincial risk, and recommend the activation of the disaster response mechanism to the provincial executive. This step is essential to move from fragmented departmental actions to a unified provincial response.
Gauteng’s farmers cannot wait for another outbreak to expose gaps in coordination and enforcement. The tools exist in law. What is required now is political will and administrative urgency.
Yes, this can be done!
The DA will continue to support sound national leadership while insisting that Gauteng uses every lawful mechanism available to protect farmers, safeguard food security, and contain the spread of FMD.