Minister of Agriculture Willie Aucamp, in office since 30 June, has confirmed that the board of Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) has moved to suspend its acting chief executive, Dr Jacob Modumo. 'On Friday I convened an urgent meeting with the board of OBP wherein I presented the board with information of allegations of serious misconduct relating to the pricing of foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccines against the acting CEO of OBP,' his office said in a statement.

The board gave Modumo notice of its intention to suspend him and five days to give reasons why it should not; if those are insufficient, the suspension stays in place pending an independent investigation. Aucamp stressed that the suspension is precautionary and that no finding has been made against him.

OBP, a state institution, imports and manufactures animal vaccines and sells imported FMD vaccines to farms, which it is not supposed to do at a profit; South Africa buys most of its FMD vaccines from Biogénesis Bagó of Argentina and Dollvet of Turkey. GroundUp, whose report Food for Mzansi carried, understands the allegation is that OBP bought doses from Biogénesis at R45 and sold them for between R70 and R130.

'The minister has made it clear that the OBP should not unduly profit from the tragedy of FMD currently facing our farmers,' the ministry said, noting that the country is in the largest FMD outbreak in its history. 'There should therefore be no exorbitant markup on the sale of FMD vaccines,' Aucamp said. Farmer organisations had earlier taken the department to court to buy vaccines directly and won an interim ruling in the Gauteng High Court in May — a case that contributed to John Steenhuisen losing the agriculture portfolio; under an agreement with Aucamp, farmers may now buy vaccines through vets and must report how they are used.

OBP received a R500 million grant in 2013 to build manufacturing capacity, much of which an audit found unaccounted for; the Agricultural Research Council, which made FMD vaccines until about 2005, resumed small-scale production this year. With 12 to 14 million cattle needing two doses a year, South Africa requires about 25 million doses annually — volumes the two foreign suppliers can meet.

Source: Food for Mzansi