OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Pietermaritzburg | Monday
KWAZULU-Natal is staring down the barrel of a potential economic disaster as almost two million hectares of the province were cordoned off over the weekend pending the vaccination of cloven-hoofed animals for foot-and-mouth disease.
Just how big the impact could be will be determined this week as teams from the department of agriculture are expected to finalise total cost estimations. Indications so far show that the province’s commercial farmers alone could face annual losses running into billions.
Provincial director-general for the department of agriculture Harry Strauss said the new measures would have a definite impact on the economy of the province.
Strauss also confirmed that imports and exports of cloven hoofed-animals, products or kitchen refuse from the Durban port, one of the busiest in the world, would be prohibited until further notice.
Included within the control zone are two major export abattoirs – Cato Ridge and Estcourt.
“We are embarking on a strategy to minimise the effect of the disease. We are trying to see what can be done to decrease the impact of the measures we have implemented,” Strauss said.
Millions of rands have already been paid in compensation to commercial and communal farmers. The process is continuing as more animals were killed daily.
The new quarantine zone stretches about 200km from Stanger in the north to Kokstad in the south of the province and about 100km inland to also include the Valley of a Thousand Hills and the two metros of Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
The disease was imported into South Africa through kitchen swill bought from a ship in the Durban harbour by a Camperdown pig farmer.
The new control zone was announced at the weekend following the discovery of infections last week in The Valley of a Thousand Hills, which fell outside the original 15km quarantine zone at Camperdown/Georgedale in the midlands.
The vaccination will involve more than 1,3m animals and would virtually turn the whole province into a foot-and-mouth controlled area.
Upon vaccination, the province faces an automatic ban on all cloven-hoofed products for up to two years. Three-and-a-half months after the last infections, the province could however ask countries to reconsider their bans.