Note to Editors: Attached please find a soundbite in English here and Afrikaans here by Bronwynn Engelbrecht MPL.
Since November 2025, seven outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) have been reported in the City of Tshwane, affecting both commercial and smaller-scale pig farming operations. The industry has incurred over R10 million in losses.
69 171 pigs have been affected, with approximately 60 000 pigs culled. The South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO) has already incurred an estimated R10 million in costs, including culling, disposal, and labour. This figure does not yet include the direct financial losses suffered by affected farmers, which have still not been submitted to the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
This devastating information was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa, in an oral reply to the Democratic Alliance’s questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).
This is not just an animal-health crisis. It is a direct blow to farmers, farm workers, food security, and the already battered meat industry in Gauteng. The province is still grappling with the devastating impact of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD), and now pig farmers in Tshwane are being forced to absorb yet another biological and financial disaster.
According to MEC Ramokgopa, the department is providing advisory and supervisory functions and liaising with the national government, SAPPO, and private veterinarians. While cooperation is important, Gauteng farmers need more than advice after a disaster has already struck. They need decisive provincial leadership. The MEC’s response provides very little comfort that the department has a proactive, fully funded, and transparent outbreak-management plan in place.
The DA in Gauteng calls on MEC Ramokgopa to urgently table a clear ASF response plan that includes a detailed outbreak map, regular public updates, the number of farms affected by district and farming category, and a full assessment of losses, not only industry-body costs.
It is unacceptable that farmers are left facing mass culling, rising costs and uncertainty while the department continues to offer vague assurances. Every outbreak that is not swiftly contained threatens livelihoods, food supply chains and consumer confidence.
The MEC must stop treating agricultural disease outbreaks as isolated incidents. ASF and FMD are warning signs of a wider failure in provincial animal-health preparedness.
Gauteng’s farmers deserve a government that protects them, not one that only confirms the damage after it has already happened.
The DA Gauteng will continue to hold the MEC accountable and will push for full transparency on the true economic impact of African Swine Fever, the support provided to affected farmers, and the steps being taken to stop further spread.
The DA Gauteng is the only party that takes disease control in the agriculture sector seriously. A DA-led Gauteng provincial government would put early warning systems in place, provide proper veterinary support, ensure transparent reporting, and ensure that the department acts before farmers are forced to count the carcasses.