Biosecurity breakdown in agriculture: A call for accountability and skilled professionals

After years in the agricultural sector and having worked at the frontline of political lobbying, disaster management, farmer development, land reform, biosecurity, financing, and farm security, I am deeply alarmed. It has become impossible to ignore the growing risk: if departmental officials continue to brush aside or outright dismiss the recommendations of Treasury and the expert task teams appointed to guide them, South Africa will inevitably be confronted with severe threats to both food security and food affordability.

In my search for clarity, I examined multiple reports detailing the deteriorating state of South Africa’s animal biosecurity. When comparing the findings of the 2022 Task Team on Animal Biosecurity, the 2025 National Treasury Budget Review, and the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) Q2 2024/25 Performance Report, a deeply unsettling picture emerges. One is forced to ask, with increasing urgency: who has been misleading whom? How have such clear warnings, recommendations, and critical mitigation steps been ignored, steps that could have prevented the biosecurity crisis we are now living through?

The "Broken System": Warnings from the Task Team (2022)

The Task Team’s report presents a stark warning, describing the national veterinary and animal biosecurity system as "broken" and a major threat to the livestock industry.

• Systemic Failure: The country is failing to diagnose diseases on time and lacks realistic remedial biosecurity measures.

• Core Issues: Problems include a lack of clear chain of command, poor coordination between national and provincial governments, and a significant trust deficit between the public and private sectors.

• Critical Shortages: The report explicitly cites a non-availability of vaccines for notifiable diseases and poor maintenance of laboratory infrastructure.

• Vaccine Crisis: The Task Team urged corrective actions to address the vaccine shortage caused by ongoing "problems and dilemmas" at OBP.

Concerns from National Treasury (2025)

The National Treasury’s 2025 Budget Review echoes these warnings, highlighting a facility "on the verge of collapse" due to aging infrastructure.

• Infrastructure Decay: OBP operates with equipment over 30 years old, far exceeding its 15–20 year lifespan, leading to frequent breakdowns and insufficient vaccine production.
• Slow Progress: While OBP was allocated over R492 million in 2018/19 for upgrades, progress has been slow, with R153.4 million still unspent as of October 2024.
• The FMD Crisis: Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccines must currently be sourced from Botswana, which Treasury identifies as a "serious biosecurity risk" due to high costs and unknown efficacy under local conditions. 

The OBP "Glossy" Performance Report (2024)

In contrast to the dire warnings above, the OBP Q2 2024/25 report presents a more positive outlook, focusing on financial targets and specific performance indicators. 

• Financial Success: OBP reported a profit before tax of R27.9 million for the quarter, exceeding its target of R11.2 million. Sales revenue reached R100 million, overachieving the R86 million target.
• Operational "Achievements": The report claims a 90.43% production efficiency, surpassing its 83% target.
• Underlying Red Flags: Despite the positive financial framing, the report reveals significant operational failures:
• Production Gaps: Output of the "Top 20" products was only 44.41% against an 80% target due to limited freeze-dryer capacity.
• Backorders: Critical vaccines like African Horse Sickness and Redwater Africa remain on backorder.
• Project Delays: Progress on the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) project—the very infrastructure Treasury is concerned about—missed its quarterly target significantly, achieving 17% against a 100% target for certain deliverables. 

Analysis: Who Fooled Whom?

The "glossy" OBP report appears to prioritize short-term financial metrics (revenue and profit) to mask a deepening operational crisis. While OBP celebrates exceeding revenue targets through the sale of high-value vaccines, it simultaneously fails to meet output targets for its most critical products due to the exact infrastructure decay Treasury warned about.

• OBP vs. Treasury: OBP’s report suggests financial health, but Treasury points out that these "profits" occur while R153 million in infrastructure funding sits unspent and the national herd remains at risk.

• OBP vs. The Task Team: While the Task Team identified OBP as a source of vaccine shortages that cripple the industry, OBP’s internal report frames its performance through "overachieved" targets in customer satisfaction and media publications.

Conclusion

The documents suggest that OBP’s reporting may be "fooling" stakeholders by emphasizing financial gains while failing to address the fundamental infrastructure collapse and vaccine shortages that the Task Team and Treasury identified as national biosecurity risks. The "broken system" remains unfixed, even as the "glossy" reports highlight quarterly profits. 

Why are those tasked with producing these critical reports never held to account for their failures? Even more alarming, why do we repeatedly overlook the urgent need to appoint truly competent, committed professionals capable of preventing the ongoing implosion of OBP? How much longer can we afford this cycle of neglect before the consequences become irreversible? 

Christo van der Rheede, written in his  personal capacity and as previous head of Agri SA,South Africa’s largest organised agricultural advocacy body

*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.

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