Mabogo dinku a thebana

Mmegi Editor | Friday February 6, 2026 09:00

According to both the acting director of Veterinary Services, Kobedi Segale and acting Lands and Agriculture minister, Edwin Dikoloti, the virus currently raging through the North-East mostly likely first entered the country during the festive season.

From the “unprecedented” number of cases picked in testing last week, it is likely that cattle and other livestock could have been infected last year, without being reported.

Animal health scientists believe that wary from the August 2022 outbreak and similar setbacks in the last 20 years, farmers in the year were reluctant to report seeing cattle with FMD symptoms.

Suspected and confirmed cases of FMD trigger measures which include immediate restrictions on livestock movements, trade, slaughter and exports, as well as other related actions. In the past, mass culling has occurred in the affected areas and farmers have bemoaned the low compensation rates they have been paid for turning over their livestock this exercise.

Authorities believe this could be part of the reason why there was an apparent reluctance by farmers to report FMD symptoms. It is also possible that with the disease breaking out over the festive season, there were far less veterinarian officers, border control and other official eyes to watch for symptoms, while the herdsmen who are the boots on the ground for farmers, were also back home in their native lands.

Whatever the reason, the delayed identification and confirmation of FMD cases means more today, authorities are scrambling to estimate just how far the virus has travelled inland from its initial incursion.

This data is critically important as it informs the response that stakeholders need to take and the potential direct and indirect costs of those interventions. Imagine that the virus is now touching other green zones in the Central District and the grave threat to the country’s beef sector becomes almost a certainty.

This disease is a call to arms for all patriots and lovers of this Republic to stand up and be counted. The farmers associations have already begun gathering funding and also holding educational campaigns in the affected areas. Some communities, such as Jackalas Number 1, which is the FMD epicentre, have already formed mephato to mobilise against the disease, even strengthening whistleblowing structures to ensure uniform cooperation.

Government, besides hastening to sample and test in order to gauge the extent of the incursion, is also proceeding with a fast-track vaccination campaign involving 10,000 doses. The farmers associations, the Botswana National Beef Producers Union, mephato and ordinary Batswana are throwing their all into ending this outbreak as quickly as possible.

Our social media, particularly Facebook, has degenerated into a cesspit of cheap politics, but this could be an opportunity for the more mature and patriotic-minded to use these platforms to advance the national rally-call against FMD.

The Command Centre and its call-centres are all available and those who truly bleed blue need to take a stand against this economically-menacing virus.

Today’s thought

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” - Henry Ford