News24 | We have beef with foot-and-mouth: Two friends dressed as cows plead for vaccines at SONA

Peter Hauff and James Sharpe led a peaceful protest, calling on Agricultural Minister John Steenhuisen to address the foot-and-mouth disease.

• A small group protested ahead of SONA on Thursday to raise awareness about foot-and-mouth disease, which has devastated about 70-90% of herds in KwaZulu-Natal.
• Farmers are frustrated by delayed vaccines, leaving them unable to protect their cattle.
• During his SONA, President Cyril Ramaphosa classified FMD as a national disaster, saying the government would vaccinate the national herd of 14 million cattle.

Two friends, both sons of dairy farmers in KwaZulu-Natal, gathered with a small group of peaceful protesters outside Cape Town City Hall on Thursday afternoon to raise awareness about the impact of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

This was ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“We’re just trying to raise awareness that this is a state-controlled disease that hasn’t been state-controlled at all. We should have vaccinated months ago when we were within 10 kilometres of the disease, but the truth on the ground is that there are no vaccines and there haven’t been for months, and as farmers, we can’t do anything, which is very frustrating for us,” said one of the friends, Peter Hauff.

Hauff said the disease has devastating effects on the cattle.

“Their hooves end up falling off, and their teeth can actually fall off, and for some of the animals, we have to put them down, which is really horrific,” he said.

READ | Vet critical of response to foot-and-mouth disease fired from ministerial task team

The team has been reaching out to various organisations to serve as their channel of communication with the agriculture ministry.

“As farmers, we don’t really have direct communication to the agricultural ministry, but we’re able to go through the Milk Producers Organisation or the Red Meat Producers Organisation, which most dairy farmers in South Africa belong to, and they’re our channel of communication to the likes of Steenhuisen, but we just don’t feel like we’ve got anywhere.”

News24 reported on Friday that the Department of Agriculture was ready to distribute 12 900 locally produced FMD vaccines, with the first batch marked for Humansdorp, where more than 2 000 cattle are infected.

READ | ‘We won’t survive again’ – Humansdorp farmers on devastating foot-and-mouth outbreak

At the Agricultural Research Council in Pretoria on Friday, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen held up two vaccine vials for the media, announcing that the multivalent vaccine would play a crucial role in combating the deadly disease affecting the industry.

Steenhuisen revealed that the government had procured over two million vaccines in 2025 but faced setbacks when vaccine producer Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) underwent a mandatory factory shutdown, leaving the state unable to access vaccines in December.

He gave assurances that within a week, over a million doses of the Dolvet vaccine would arrive to bolster the fight, alongside 960 000 doses of the BVI vaccine set to be delivered to South Africa.

Hauff said that despite the talks about vaccination rollouts, these developments have not made much difference.

“There’s been a lot of talk in the media about vaccines and the 10-year plan of Mr Steenhuisen on how it’s going to be solved, but on the ground, there’s nothing that’s changed in the last three or four months.”

He said it is frustrating that countries such as Argentina and Turkey have vaccines ready to send to South Africa, but are delayed because the relevant papers have not yet been signed to release them.

Hauff said the reason they can always be seen wearing cow costumes during protests is to draw attention and make the situation more light-hearted in difficult times.

“The costumes are to get attention, because we stand out in them, and secondly, as farmers at these times, we need a bit of a smile and a bit of a laugh. In all this terrible situation we’re in, I would like to make some farmers at home laugh and smile and be happy that we tried our best.”

Hauff said the support he’s received from community members and other farmers has been good.

“We planned this between myself and my friend – our parents know that we’re doing it and they’re very supportive. The few farmers that do know are quite excited about us being there to support them and be there for them, so there has been quite a bit of support from the community.”

ALSO READ | ‘We are losing everything’: Over 17 000 KZN farms devastated by foot-and-mouth disease

“We know the problems are at home in KZN and it’s too far and the farmers can’t leave their farms in KZN to be there, so we would like to be there to represent them, and we thought the SONA would be a good time to go because there is a lot of media around and it would be a good time to get attention.”

The outbreak of FMD in KwaZulu-Natal has devastated farmers, with 70-90% of herds affected and over 17 000 farms reporting cases.

During his SONA on Thursday evening, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that they had classified foot-and-mouth disease as a national disaster and would be “mobilising all necessary capabilities within the state to deal with this crisis”.

He said:

“This requires 28 million vaccines over the next 12 months.”

Ramaphosa said the state would facilitate the acquisition of the vaccines centrally to ensure the right vaccine for the particular strain of the virus in South Africa.

“We will work closely with the private sector to enable an efficient rollout, and most importantly, we will ensure that commercial, private and communal farmers have immediate access to vaccines.”

He added that a task team had been set up, made up of farmer organisations and experts, that would work with Steenhuisen and his department.

The task team would report to him monthly on progress in addressing FMD.