Gov’t Independence compromise ignites fresh FMD row
Spira Tlhankane | Monday October 12, 2026 06:00
In a recent statement, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) stated that government has effectively acknowledged that controlled cattle slaughter can be conducted safely but only for Independence celebrations.
For farmers struggling to pay school fees, service debts, and keep livestock businesses alive, the opposition party argues that the same logic should not expire with the holiday.
BCP shadow minister for Lands and Agriculture, Kesitegile Gobotswang, has seized the opportunity granted by the temporary relaxation to accuse government of applying a double standard to farmers caught in the FMD crisis.
“If on-farm slaughter and permit-free movement of fresh product inside Zone 11 are safe enough for Independence gatherings, they are safe enough for a household that has to eat and a farmer who has to sell,” he said in the statement.
His criticism comes after the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture announced that cattle and small stock could be slaughtered for social events and own consumption in much of Zone 11.
The gesture was, however, from the eve of Independence celebrations until October 5, 2026, subject to strict conditions and excluding areas where outbreaks remain active.
For Gobotswang, the arrangement exposed what he says is the fundamental weakness in government’s current approach where restrictions are being maintained even in areas where surveillance indicates that the disease is absent.
“The virus does not become dangerous again on October 6,” he added.
The remark captures the increasingly bitter argument at the centre of Botswana’s FMD crisis.
Government insists that movement restrictions, vaccination, surveillance, fencing, and biosecurity remain essential to preventing the disease from spreading into clean areas.
Farmers, however, are increasingly asking how long they can be expected to carry the economic burden of those measures.
According to Gobotswang, the Department of Veterinary Services surveillance has found no FMD west of the A1 and no disease in zones 9, 10, and 13, along the South African border.
He also points to the Ministry’s findings that the Kgatleng outbreak is confined to Oodi, Dikwidiki, and Mochudi East, whilst within the containment zone the disease is concentrated in Phitshane-Molopo, Mabule, and Sekhutlhane.
Three rounds of emergency vaccinations have been completed in the affected zone, whilst Zone 3c, Maitengwe, and Zone 6b are already on the 12-month recovery clock.
The BCP argues that these developments should allow government to distinguish between areas where FMD remains active and those where surveillance has found no evidence of the disease.
Instead, Gobotswang says, farmers in much of Zone 11 remain unable to move or sell live cattle.
“The only concession is slaughter for social events and own consumption, at the cattle post, with the product forbidden to leave the zone. A wedding this week is permitted. School fees next week are not,” he said.
Gobotswang argues that it is no longer simply a veterinary question but an economic and political one. The controversy comes against the backdrop of a fresh outbreak in Kgatleng that has complicated government’s attempts to ease restrictions.
Laboratory investigations confirmed FMD at Oodi, Dikwidiki, and Mochudi East extension areas in Zone 11 after suspected cases were identified at several crushes. The developments triggered emergency vaccination, intensified surveillance and tighter movement controls.
Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Kobedi Segale, has previously indicated that preparations were under way to relax some FMD measures, but the emergence of new cases in Kgatleng complicated those plans.
For government, relaxing restrictions too quickly could allow the virus to escape containment and threaten areas that have remained free of the disease.
For Gobotswang, however, the continuing outbreak is evidence that the strategy itself needs to be reassessed. He has accused government of spending heavily on an FMD response that has failed to bring the outbreak under control.
“Eight months later, transmission is still active in the south,” he said in an earlier attack on the government’s handling of the crisis. “This is not misfortune. This is neglect, dressed up as a response.”
But behind the political rhetoric is an increasingly painful reality for cattle farmers. For many rural households, cattle are savings, collateral, income and a form of financial security. Movement restrictions have therefore effectively frozen a major part of farmers’ wealth.
The pressure has also spread beyond individual farmers to feedlots, abattoirs, transporters and other businesses dependent on the movement and sale of livestock.
The problem was starkly illustrated by the legal battle involving feedlot operators JS Beef (Pty) Ltd and Primefast (Pty) Ltd.
The companies told the Gaborone High Court in September that approximately 6,600 cattle had remained in their facilities for more than 200 days beyond their intended slaughter dates, with additional feeding costs estimated at P27 million.
Justice Onkemetse Tshosa dismissed their urgent application on September 1, with costs, finding that the matter did not meet the threshold for urgency.
The companies had sought permission to slaughter or export the cattle, arguing that they were not seeking to dismantle the government's broader FMD control measures.
The case nonetheless exposed the extraordinary economic consequences of keeping livestock trapped inside restricted systems for months.
If movement restrictions have created financial pressure, livestock destruction has become an even more emotive issue.
At community engagements, farmers have questioned the destruction of cattle that cross containment boundaries and asked why animals cannot first be tested and quarantined. But for farmers who lose cattle, the veterinary explanation does little to erase the economic loss.
Gobotswang has in an earlier statement called for the abolition of the National and District FMD Command Centres, arguing that they have become costly political structures rather than effective disease-control mechanisms.
He wants the money redirected to the Department of Veterinary Services for surveillance, early detection, rapid response, biosecurity, and the rehabilitation of cordon fences.
He has also demanded that government account to Parliament for the P97 million committed to the FMD response.
Now government is left facing an uncomfortable question with the temporary relaxation having expired on October 5.
The ministry will have to decide whether the Independence relaxation was merely a temporary holiday exception or the beginning of a more targeted approach that distinguishes between areas where FMD is active and those the state itself says are clean.