• Dr Jacob Modumoh was placed on precautionary suspension after claims of serious misconduct involving foot-and-mouth disease vaccine prices during the outbreak.
• Agriculture Minister Willie Aucamp says the state-owned vaccine company should not make excessive profits while farmers battle the country’s biggest foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.
The acting head of a state-owned vaccine company has been suspended as questions swirl around the price of crucial foot-and-mouth disease vaccines.
Onderstepoort Biological Products Acting Chief Executive Officer Dr Jacob Modumoh has been placed on precautionary suspension.
The move follows claims of serious misconduct linked to the pricing of foot-and-mouth disease vaccines.
Agriculture Minister Willie Aucamp confirmed the suspension after calling an urgent meeting with the Onderstepoort Biological Products board on Friday, 4 September.
Aucamp presented information about the claims against Modumoh to the board.
The board then informed Modumoh that it intended to suspend him.
Under company policy, he was given five days to explain why he should not be suspended.
Aucamp said the suspension would remain in place pending an independent investigation if Modumoh’s reasons were not enough to change the decision.
The minister stressed that the suspension does not mean Modumoh has been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
The claims have not yet been independently investigated.
Vaccine prices under the spotlight
The case comes at a critical time for South Africa’s livestock industry.
Aucamp has described the current foot-and-mouth disease outbreak as the biggest in the country’s history.
Farmers are already carrying a heavy financial burden as they try to protect their animals and businesses.
Aucamp said Onderstepoort Biological Products, as a government entity, must serve the public interest.
He said it should not make excessive profits from vaccines needed to fight the outbreak.
“There should therefore be no exorbitant markup on the sale of FMD vaccines, particularly at a time when farmers are already carrying the significant financial burden of this outbreak,” Aucamp said.
Government has a responsibility to make sure vaccines are bought and supplied as cheaply and efficiently as possible, he said.
Aucamp also promised tough oversight of public entities under his department.
“It is important that the department as well as all public entities and Boards under my watch perform their duties ethically and with the highest standards,” he said.
“Nothing less will be tolerated.”
Taxpayer money at centre of row
FMD Response SA welcomed Aucamp’s intervention.
The organisation said an important point was being missed in the debate over vaccine pricing.
It said the vaccines at the centre of the claims were bought for the national response using public money.
“This was not farmers being overcharged. This was the Department of Agriculture paying the State’s own company with taxpayer money,” spokesperson Andrew Morphew said.
“The Minister has now done what oversight is supposed to do, and we welcome it.”
The organisation said vaccine supply previously operated through a single channel.
An agreement reached in July, however, opened the way for farmers and veterinarians to buy vaccines directly.
Now FMD Response SA wants the scrutiny to go further.
It is calling for an independent check on South Africa’s foot-and-mouth disease testing system.
Calls for independent testing
FMD Response SA said Onderstepoort Biological Products and the Agricultural Research Council’s Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute are separate organisations.
But it raised concerns about several important parts of the country’s disease response remaining concentrated in one channel.
According to the organisation, the institute confirms outbreaks, conducts testing, advises government on which vaccines should be used and manufactures its own vaccine for the response.
“No institution should wear all of those hats,” Morphew said.
The organisation wants some South African foot-and-mouth disease samples routinely sent to the World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease at Pirbright in the United Kingdom.
It says this would provide independent verification of local testing results.
“That is not a criticism of anyone. It is how confidence is built,” Morphew said.
FMD Response SA said it was not accusing any institution of acting in bad faith.
Its concern is whether South Africa has a strong enough independent system to check important parts of the response.
“No institution should be the sole judge of a response it also supplies,” the organisation said.
Minister warns against speculation
Aucamp has urged the public and media not to jump to conclusions about Modumoh.
“This matter will not be resolved through the media,” he said.
“We therefore urge the media and the public to refrain from speculation and to allow the appropriate processes to run their course until the matter has been concluded.”
The minister said the case remains at an early stage.
Modumoh still has an opportunity to make representations and the claims have not yet been independently investigated.
No further comment will be made until it is appropriate and lawful to provide more information, Aucamp and Onderstepoort Biological Products said.
Vaccination drive will continue
Aucamp assured farmers that the suspension will not stop the country’s foot-and-mouth disease vaccination campaign.
He urged farmers not to lose confidence in the response.
Instead, he said, they should see the action against Modumoh as a sign that government is serious about accountability and protecting the integrity of the vaccination programme.
Aucamp also encouraged farmers to continue applying to become authorised persons.
This would allow approved farmers to vaccinate their own animals while following the required rules and protocols.
FMD Response SA said it would continue working with government, public and private veterinarians, vaccine suppliers, industry groups and livestock farmers to control the outbreak and restore South Africa’s animal health status.
For now, Modumoh’s suspension remains precautionary.
The independent investigation will be key to establishing whether there was any wrongdoing over the pricing of vaccines being used to fight South Africa’s biggest foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.
Pictured above: Herd of cows.
Image source: File.
