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Daily Maverick
08-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Explainer: South Africa's chicken vaccine play may already be too late
South Africa is finally vaccinating its chickens, but unfortunately, it won't protect against the virus that's already shredded the industry. Here's the kicker in the Department of Agriculture's long-delayed greenlighting of mass poultry vaccination: Biosecurity Council proactivity will lead to the roll-out of H5 vaccines that can't protect against the H7N6 strain, the viral villain of the avian flu outbreak of 2023, the country's worst yet. A vaccine for the H7 mutation? Still 'in the registration process,' says the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development. Meanwhile, the virus most responsible for wiping out nearly 10 million birds in 2023 is still loitering in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng, like a bad flu that just won't go away. Graphic by Yeshiel Panchia Don't panic, but it's endemic now, circulating in wild birds and on edge-of-recovery farms. And there's no shield against it, not even a metaphorical one. Wait, what is 'biosecurity'? John Steenhuisen has not explained that no farm has yet met the biosecurity protocols required to vaccinate against any strain, according to the South African Poultry Association (Sapa). 'Onerous' and 'prohibitively expensive' are the words the association is using. But this chicken-and-egg situation isn't new. It's the latest act in a decade-long outbreak drama that has seen small farmers bankrupted, prices skyrocket and government agencies perpetually one step behind. Nowhere is the policy and practicality mismatch clearer than in the agriculture department's long-standing 'nil compensation' policy. Graphic by Yeshiel Panchia Chicken and the egg The logic behind the concept introduced in 1984 was sound. In cases where animals are infected with a highly contagious disease, the government mandates their destruction to prevent further outbreaks. The argument for nil compensation is that infected animals have no market value and cannot be sold, making compensation unnecessary. However, the government must balance the interests of farmers with public funds. Paying compensation for infected animals could create financial strain, especially in large-scale outbreaks – especially when financial sanctions were hurting the economy (in 1984). To be fair, the 1986 amendment of the Animal Diseases Act provided for the possibility of compensation. So the move towards a 'nil compensation' policy for avian flu appears to be significantly influenced by the 2009 amendment to Regulation 30, which granted the director discretionary power over compensation amounts and the subsequent interpretation that diseased birds hold no value. A blunt instrument But this approach, cemented after the 2017 outbreak, has arguably done more harm than good. With no safety net, farmers have every reason not to report infections. The results? Delayed containment. Unregulated culls. And, in some cases, infected birds sold into the informal market. That incentive structure came under legal fire last year when a George-based farmer took the state to court over a R32-million loss from 387,000 culled chickens and 5.39 million eggs destroyed in a 2021 outbreak. In a Western Cape Division of the High Court ruling, the judge ordered the agriculture department to reconsider the claim, using the value of the birds in a healthy state as the basis. If enforced, it could open the door to billions in retroactive claims. But enforcement is the key word. As of mid-2025, there's still no confirmation that the agriculture department has changed its stance – or that it will. The future is viral Steenhuisen's department wants vaccination to be the foundation of a future-proof poultry sector. Which is fair, but vaccines alone won't cut it, especially when half the threat is unaccounted for. This is a virus that doesn't just travel across provinces. It migrates with birds, adapts, mutates and ignores borders. And the state's current selective vaccination, compensation and regulation playbook won't fix that. The new Biosecurity Council could help coordinate a smarter response. There's cautious optimism that weekly negotiations between Sapa and the agriculture department might produce more realistic vaccination protocols. The industry is pushing hard for a tiered, affordable system that doesn't just favour industrial-scale producers. But unless H7 vaccines become available soon, and unless the state offers fair compensation and support for biosecurity upgrades, we're looking at a future where avian flu is endemic and chicken is a luxury item. DM
Daily Maverick
07-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Understanding South African inequality as a precondition for transformation
There's no shortage of opinions, both new and old, as to the meaning of authentic transformation and how to get there. Navigating through this minefield is determined by the particularities of the compass being used. 'South Africa's economic and social stability hinges on genuine, not superficial, transformation,' writes Daily Maverick's Yeshiel Panchia, whose article was high among Daily Maverick's top reads for March 2025. Despite almost 31 post-apartheid years, Panchia continues, 'legislation enacted specifically to rectify historical economic injustices' via 'explicit redistribution' is still waiting for the needed 'genuine transformation'. Transformation has now become the popular generic term for affirmative action, employment equity, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and the gamut of other measures all taken in the name of redress, of levelling the pot-holed playing fields. But the times are a'changin. Among others, Stephen Grootes, noting that the 'policy of black economic empowerment has always been intensely controversial', reminds us that after about three decades, political forces from the centre as well as organised business 'may be gathering enough strength to overturn it'. The challenge for him is to find options other than the 'unworkable' or 'unfair' ones of BEE. He concludes his impassioned article thus: 'Genuine diversity and economic empowerment are still elusive (after) three decades. For South Africa to realise the promise of a better life for all, policymakers, corporations and civil society must commit to true diversity, not merely as regulatory compliance, but as a fundamental pursuit of equity and inclusivity. 'The resilience and stability of South Africa's economic and social fabric depend on achieving this authentic transformation.' Donald Trump's recent intervention in these matters has further focused public attention on 'authentic transformation'. There's no shortage, both new and old, as to the meaning of authentic transformation and how to get there. Navigating through this minefield is determined by the particularities of the compass being used. This is to say, one's understanding of South Africa's inequality is the starting point for all competing answers. The more challenging issue of the policy changes required to meet the numerous constitutional injunctions regarding transformation is for another time. Notwithstanding these still-to-be-met constitutional injunctions, the exclusive focus of this article is how South African inequality has come to be understood. For convenience, I have grouped them into four broad ones. The four competing understandings of our inequality They are race; intersectionality; and two forms of class – reductionist and dialectical. We'll be looking at each separately, beginning with race. 1. Race Unbroken racialised inequality remains overwhelmingly the primary, if not only, understanding of South Africa since 1994. Underpinning this understanding is the undoubted reality of the specifically apartheid racialised inequality of racial capitalism. Aided by a huge amount of selective perception, contemporary South Africa appears to be unchanged. The face of poverty remains overwhelming African. (Why African rather than black will be explained in due course.) Apart from blindness to African wealth — white wealth being the main, when not only, measure of the supposedly racialised inequality — there is however still no analysis provided by those who invoke this perception to explain why, beginning with the repeal of the cornerstone of apartheid, the Population Registration Act, in 1991, along with the phalanx of related laws deliberately designed to discriminate against Africans, African poverty not only remains but is worse than ever. Similarly known but without recognition or subject to analysis by them is the growth of this malady. This despite a mainly African Parliament, with an always African president heading an almost exclusively African Cabinet. Moreover, the laws, policies and practices either passed or sanctioned by Parliament reproducing African poverty have been implemented and enforced by a rapidly Africanised judiciary, labour department and other organs of the civil service. So ubiquitous is the appearance of African poverty that the mere assertion of it being racialised poverty is sufficient. The hows and whys behind its repeated reproduction seem to make superfluous the need for its proponents to supply any supporting research. Saying all this in no way denies that racism is involved in some instances of retarding African upward mobility. But, other than anecdotal evidence, this, too, is left bare of the required research evidence. 2. Intersectionality Introduced by feminists and subsequently adopted by the broad left, intersectionality is offered as a multi-focused alternative to racialised inequality. Being taught at many universities globally adds academic gravitas to the concept, originally introduced in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Bridie Taylor, a specialist in race and gender issues, having additionally been an important founder of critical race theory, provides a useful definition of intersectionality in her article: 'Intersectionality 101: What Is It And Why Is It Important?' 'Intersectionality is the acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression, and we must consider everything and anything that can marginalise people — gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc.' Preceding this definition is the following diagramme, also by Taylor: Her diagrammatic illustration, along with her definition, highlight intersectionality's immediate limitations. These include. All five of the overlapping spheres she recognises are of equal size. They are just posited without any origin, history or the possibility of change. Apart from being timeless, they are additionally presented as being implicitly universal. Her exclusive focus on discrimination and oppression, as per her definition. Her definition omits economic exploitation, in all its various forms. While emphasising that all forms of oppression are interconnected and cannot be understood in isolation, class is a singular unseen. Indeed, although class is part of her definition, it doesn't figure in what is supposed to be her diagrammatic representation of her definition. Like transformation, she is similarly silent about privilege. Are the rich also not a class? Moreover, given that wealth also means political power, she says nothing about the nature of the dominant class and its internal divisions. The interconnections are undeveloped. We either accept these interconnections or are left in ignorance as to their nature. Implicitly on offer is nothing more than stereotypes of each of the five identities in her diagramme. The headline in a recent Daily Maverick article by Judith February, a well-respected legal figure, exemplifies the male stereotype: 'The truth is needed in a world polluted by big-mouthed men' (the headline in this link is from the Daily Maverick 168's reprint of her Daily Maverick newsletter). The egregious gender essentialism is explored in Clare Kerchhoff's Daily Maverick article, ' Who Benefits from Inclusivity '. Some of the screaming silences on class are rectified in left-influenced, current versions of intersectionality. They do at least recognise privilege. Class, for them, is a conjoined twin between the rich and workers, along with the otherwise poor. However, even though recognising both the rich and poor realms of class, they invariably don't: Go beyond just mentioning class. Say anything about the nature and dynamics behind the distinctly different forms of inequality universally taken — often concurrently — by the rich and poor since the emergence of class. Say much, if anything, about the nature and dynamics of the interactions between intersectionality's five main constituents and class. Recognise the reciprocal though uneven interactions between class and the intersectionality's circles. Water provides a simple analogy. Water, a distinct entity, is nevertheless made up of unequal elements: two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen. Intersectionality has two South African-specific racial features. First is the conscious consolidation of apartheid's artificially manufactured four 'races'. Race required no resurrection following 1994's formal burial of apartheid. Former heroes of the liberation Struggle against apartheid discovered this almost immediately after the beginning of the new 1994 Parliament when being rebutted by the inherent advantages of being 'white' ANC MPs. To my certain knowledge (I was an ANC parliamentary researcher for five years) this accusation occurred to some of them who questioned the ANC's ready acceptance of the enhanced pay and perks they had just awarded themselves, even though the ANC had attacked the previously even less outrageous privileges of apartheid-era MPs. Black and white are indeed the only 'races' recognised in the Employment Equity Act of 1998, the foundational legislation of all subsequent transformation laws — but not transformation practices. African, coloured, Indian occur in the act — and all its subsequent amendments and extensions — only once and that is to reject them in favour of the generic 'black'. Yet these apartheid races — statutorily disavowed because of their divisiveness and creation of hierarchies of oppression — are still the only ones used in all relevant official statistics, including the annual reports of the Employment Equity Commission, the statutory body established to advise the labour minister and ensure the proper enforcement of the Employment Equity Act. Having already written several articles over the years on why 'African', in particular, became and has been allowed by Parliament to remain a legally unauthorised metric, I invite interested readers to google 'Daily Maverick Rudin Employment Equity Act'. (As will be seen below, I occasionally self-reference. I do so only because the specific issues cannot be developed in this article and, when it happens, that elaboration of the subject at hand is available in articles I've previously published.) Representivity is the second of the South African versions of 'race', with African being the primary focus. Until last year's establishment of the Government of National Unity, the required proportional 'demographic' representivity enshrined in the Employment Equity Act was honoured in the breach. South African representivity becomes global in the ubiquitous confusion of class for race. Drawing on what is evidently taught at a leading British University's sociology department (where one of my Britain-born and based granddaughters is a student) as a typical example, data reveals that black, Latina, and indigenous people earn substantially less than the average for white people or they live in the most unhealthy of environments. Race is attributed to these statistically accurate realities. In both cases, however, US inequality (including mental health) ensures that large numbers of 'white' Americans share these manifestations of class-based poverty. And, so, we come to the final two of the main understandings of South African inequality. 3. Class reductionism As a person often accused over the years of class reductionism by both friend and foe alike, this definition covers all the various charges laid against me: 'Class reductionism is disparagingly used to describe theoretical and political frameworks that prioritise the significance of class relations over all other societal hierarchies. The term is used to criticise theories, policies or strategies that neglect to directly address racism, sexism or other social oppressions… Class reductionism has been described as being opposed to identity politics and postmodernism. The term has also been used to describe Marxist theory as a whole.' However, like Adolph Reed Jnr, a US activist academic, I agree that class reductionism is what he calls a 'myth', a 'caricature' of class; a label, in my view, used by lazy people needing quick dismissals of class. Dismissing class always remains on option, but not without first considering: 4. The dialectics of class My understanding of class, before complicating matters with the addition of dialectics, long precedes capitalism and is thus controversial. Class (in my understanding) emerged at different times in each particular place globally as soon as people were able to produce the physical essentials of life greater than their subsistence needs. This surplus allowed for the original survival division of labour to expand sufficiently to include a small number of people privileged by appropriating various parts of the originally small surplus for themselves. Whether the resulting social inequality was sufficient to produce a privileged class or proto/emerging class can be established only by a careful study of the specificities of each privileged group. Be this as it may, the relative wealth, together with the consequent power and status they enjoyed, grew with the expanding surplus. This is to say, inequality is inherent in any group, regardless of its form and size as long as there is a surplus. Unavoidably inherent in this surplus reaching a certain size and being reproduced over sufficient generations are antagonistic interests between those who take from those who produce. Before moving to dialectics, a quick stop at Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) — or, more accurately, a sort of social Newtonianism, is required, as David McNally, a North American academic and prolific author, points out. Newton placed his dynamic world of constant motion, along with homogeneous and unmoving space and time, upon fixed and unchanging foundations. The billiard-ball metaphor, named after him, demonstrates his law of the conservation of energy: once set in motion, the billiard ball (in a vacuum) continues unstopped unless colliding and careening with the edges of the billiard table and/or other billiard balls. Thus, McNally observes: 'Rather than the parts being unified as internally related aspects of a whole, the (Newtonian) whole is instead considered to be a mere sum of indifferent parts… of the world whose most basic properties are unaffected by other… (preexisting) parts.' For present purposes, Georg Hegel (1770-1831), one of the 19th century's most prominent European philosophers, provided a dialectical alternative to the Newtonian physics of pre-existing parts unaffected by the other parts with which they interact. Rather than just interacting they mutually determine each other in a never-ending process of constant complexity. I fundamentally differ from that Marxian school that sees economics in almost Newtonian terms. For me, the experiences of existence, while preceding consciousness, exist in a dynamic and mutually shaping interpenetration. Crucially, consciousness, in the myriad social forms it takes — beginning with the alphabetic 'A', as in art and artificial intelligence — exercises limited autonomy. Self-identities — whether they be racial, sexual, gendered, language, religion, national, regional or ethnic — all shape the (sometimes ambiguous) class-determined behaviours of the wealthy takers and poor producers alike. Evident contradictions Class, understood dialectically, in other words, expressly allows for a heterogeneous complexity with all its evident contradictions. The struggle between the privileged and the deprived remains the ultimate contradiction in all class structured societies everywhere, and from their very birth. Dialectical class consciousness applies equally to the privileged, although in a very different way. They have both the economic and political power to rule each of their varying domains. For contemporary South Africa, a Karl Marx quote from the mid-19th century, remains apposite: 'The specific economic form, in which… (surplus) is pumped out of direct producers, determines the relationship of rulers and ruled, as it grows directly out of production itself and, in turn, reacts upon it as a determining element. Upon this, however, is founded the entire formation of the economic community which grows up out of the production relations themselves, thereby simultaneously its specific political form. 'It is always… (this foundation) which reveals the innermost secret, the hidden basis of the entire social structure and with it the political form of the relation of sovereignty and dependence, in short, the corresponding specific form of the state. This does not prevent the same economic basis… due to innumerable different empirical circumstances, natural environment, racial relations, external historical influences, etc. from showing infinite variations and gradations in appearance, which can be ascertained only by analysis of the empirically given circumstances'.(Marx, Capital.) This is to say, class, understood dialectically, expressly affirms the role that race and 'external historical influences' play in each individual. Additionally included in their consciousness by these influences are gender, religion and identity. All the above theoretical stuff, having been said, leads us to the very concrete event of Freedom Day — 27 April 2025. The tragedy of today's South Africa is the probability of most South Africans seeing 27 April as nothing more than a public holiday. Unknown to them is that it's a public holiday supposedly to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the long Struggle waged by many, including those who gave up their lives, for each South African over the age of 18 years to vote in a free election in which all votes are equal. For many among the few who know this, their response has been a challenging one for the future of South Africa. This begins with those born after the innocent days of 1994 who were referred to as the 'Born Frees'. That freedom is now a cynical joke for increasing numbers of the 'Born Free' generations. Shack dwellers in Durban have turned 27 April into an 'Unfreedom Day' annual demonstration. The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), which broke away from Cosatu because of its formal alliance with an ANC more at home with business than workers, noted in its Freedom Day statement, 'Freedom Without Economic Justice is an Empty Shell', the 'brutal deferment' of 'economic liberation'. Among those most unlikely to know anything about Freedom Day are the mothers who sell their children, when not actually killing them; or the many in the townships and shacks throughout South Africa who have given up hope of having water, 21st century toilets; or clinics, which, even when open, are empty of standard medications; or the people deliberately running in front of fast moving cars in the hope of claiming compensation from the Road Accident Fund, if they are sufficiently fortunate to have been injured rather than killed. These are the people all too unwelcomely familiar with poverty rather than freedom. Hoax of a non-racial South Africa The hoax of a non-racial South Africa that ANC leaders are now invoking — most recently by Acting President Gwede Mantashe on Freedom Day — is additional reason for ever-decreasing numbers of 'white' South Africans to shun Freedom Day, even among those who know why it has become a public holiday. The facts of the highly selective use of racist laws are more than sufficient to make 'white' South Africans uneasy about what has become of South Africa's freedom. This selectivity allows the Julius Malemas, Judge John Motatas, Andile Mngxitamas and Velaphi Khumalos to get away with incitement to murder all white people, while dismissal, imprisonment and/or heavy fines are reserved for the 'white' Chris Harts and, although racist, the tragic figures like the Penny Sparrows and Vicky Mombergs. For Daily Maverick's Zukiswa Pikoli, all that is required for aspirations such as 'the sustainability of our humanness that does not need to be rubber-stamped by one race over another', is an 'honest recognition of past injustices'. Alas, this is far from sufficient. 'Not yet Uhuru', the one-time Kenyan slogan, is especially relevant to our Freedom Day. Honest recognition of past injustices needs to be empowered by a better understanding of South Africa's inequality. Absent this understanding guarantees the perpetuation of the very policies inimical to Pikoli's aspirations. The intention of this article is to enhance our ability to formulate policy directions substantially different from those of the previous 31 years. Aslam Fataar's article, '' Kill the Boer' Is A Betrayal of SA's Democratic Promise ', provides a suitable conclusion: 'To speak against Malema's chant (of death) is not to stand with racists. It is to stand with the Constitution. It is to stand with Steve Biko, who taught us that the struggle is not merely against oppression but for restoring black dignity and consciousness… 'And it is to stand with the people — especially the poor, who have no use for rhetorical war games but hunger instead for policies that transform their lives. We must build a society where chants are replaced with choices, and politics is not a battleground of egos but a platform for hope.' DM
Daily Maverick
26-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
No VAT, all slash; South Africans gatvol of GNU drama; and picking the next pope
The Weekend Wrap No VAT, all slash. Inside the IDT CEO's R22m assets splurge. And how the next pope will be elected. 'Only game in town': Treasury must now slash the fat with no hike for the VAT After years of squandering and providing a swelling army of cadres and their kin with government jobs and contracts — not to mention outright stealing and looting — there are simply no other trees to shake in the hope that money will magically fall from the canopy. By Ed Stoddard VAT deal means GNU stays — just in time as new survey shows South Africans are gatvol of the drama A midnight deal that saw the National Treasury drop the VAT increase and reach a possible out-of-court settlement on the DA's VAT case has probably saved the Government of National Unity. By Ferial Haffajee Cash properties and new SUVs – inside Independent Development Trust CEO's R22m assets splurge The Independent Development Trust's newly constituted board has passed a resolution calling for lifestyle audits into the entity's executive management. Daily Maverick unpacks several property transactions and vehicle purchases that might pique the investigators' interest. By Pieter-Louis Myburgh for Scorpio Eleven things we learnt about the GNU from Tony Leon's new book, plus some gossip Tony Leon was part of the DA's negotiating team in the formation of the Government of National Unity — and his new book contains a juicy account of the behind-the-scenes action. By Rebecca Davis VAT Increase Scrapped: Political Win or Economic Gamble? Behind the press conferences and political posturing, one question remains: how will the government cover the R75-billion gap? Daily Maverick's Yeshiel Panchia explains. Reporting by: Yeshiel Panchia Turning the page — how early book access can transform South Africa's future On World Book Day, South Africa's early literacy crisis takes centre stage. As the country grapples with a deep literacy divide, grassroots initiatives like the Santa Shoebox Project and Book Dash are showing that change is possible, starting with a single storybook. With community involvement, mother-tongue stories and the gift of book ownership, they're planting the seeds of lifelong learning in the hands of the youngest readers. By Takudzwa Pongweni On what grounds are the legal challenges against the contentious NHI Act being fought? The National Health Insurance Act has been subjected to five legal challenges. Who are the challengers and what are their grievances? By Tamsin Metelerkamp Our brains are being fried — here's why (and what to do about it) Digital dementia is a thing – and it's getting worse – but there are ways to push back without throwing your phone in the ocean. By Dominique Olivier Gift Leotlela's 100m performance shows South Africa's sprinters are ready to take on the world 'I've never had a South African senior title. This is my first.' Gift Leotlela stunned a packed field, including Bayanda Walaza and Benjamin Richardson, at the Senior National Track & Field Championships on Thursday. By Keanan Hemmonsbey Seven climate tipping points that could change life as we know it This Earth Day, the warning signs are impossible to ignore. Evidence is mounting that several Earth systems are on the verge of breaching their tipping points. Scientists warn that triggering them poses grave threats for our planet's life-support systems. There is still a window of opportunity to prevent this breach but it's closing faster than we realise. By Our Burning Planet How the next pope will be elected – what goes on at the conclave Holding a conclave to elect a pope is a tradition that goes back centuries. By Mathew Schmalz Mosquitoes are the world's most dangerous animals, but here's why they shouldn't all disappear Wouldn't it be better for us all if mosquitoes disappeared. One answer is that it would save about 500,000 lives per year, but that's not the whole story. By Shüné Oliver Daily Mini Crossword Quickie Play here. Fynvleis and wildspastei, the heart of the Karoo in a pie This was my recipe of the Year in 2022, a traditional game pie (wildspastei) made with fynvleis. Karoo tradition, first in a pot, then in a pie. My dear friend Sandra Antrobus taught me how to make fynvleis, and she was always very precise about how to cook things. Especially this. It passed muster. By Tony Jackman Subscribe to First Thing to receive the Weekend Wrap in your inbox every Sunday morning. If you value the work our journalists do and want to support Daily Maverick, consider becoming a Maverick Insider. Support DM
