Africa (Commonwealth Union) _ The Southern African Agri Initiative (SAAI) reports that it has reached a critical stage of what it terms the “dissolution” of Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), which is South Africa’s state-owned vaccine company. In its 2024/25 Annual Report, which came out recently, this issue is raised.
According to Saai, which brought to the table a report before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, we see that which reports of institutional decay. OBP did only 62% of what was set out for achievement, failed to bring in what they were expected to bring in (R100 million), and again got a qualified audit report, which is also the fourth year in a row it has had unresolved financial issues. Profit also went down from that of R231 million to R186 million at the same time as vaccine production, which had been reduced by almost a quarter.
Saai CEO Francois Rossouw reports that these numbers are a sign of a broken system; they are not of administrative mistakes. “This isn’t a case of paperwork or delay in accounts we are seeing less vaccines out there, weaker disease control, and greater livestock losses,” he said. For over a decade OBP has been a product of poor leadership, outdated infrastructure, and chronic instability. Critical equipment bought in 2018 is still sitting idle, and the entity is without GMP certification or permanent executive staff.
Rossouw reports that OBP’s failure, which brought to bear the issue of them not putting out basic vaccines, has left farmers at risk and rural economies at the brink of collapse, which in turn has seen South Africa also dealing with export embargos put in place because of livestock diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). Also, he said the Department of Agriculture is at large for OBP’s inaction, which he is calling out, and is putting forth that there be an independent review of operations, immediate appointment of leaders, and also that we see some public-private partnerships, which in turn will restore efficiency.
However, the DoA put forth that Saai’s claims are baseless. The department reported that in fact OBP’s performance had improved from 53% in 2023/24 to 62% in 2024/25, which was its best in five years. Also, we found that out of the seven past audit issues, four have been resolved, and OBP is still at work on the rest, which is also positive news.
The department also reported that OBP does not run the foot and mouth disease vaccine program, which is the responsibility of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). Also, regarding reports of production drop-off, we put forth that OBP achieved 93.79%, which in fact outperforms the 85% we had set out to do.
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has urged OBP to implement tighter cost controls, ensure improved financial discipline, and pursue key skills through targeted recruitment. Also, he noted that while the department will back OBP, “what we are looking for is from its board and management the accountability for results.
