• Rep Agrimonitor

Veterinary cordon fence or red line?

• 1 Month Ago - 2024-08-06 00:00:00

With the court case regarding the removal of the veterinary cordon fence (VCF), or the so-called red line, still to be decided, it is worthwhile to have a look at the historical basis of the VCF and the legal provisions providing for the existence and operation thereof and animal disease control fences in general.
According to Giorgio Miescher in his book Namibia’s Red Line: The History of a Veterinary and Settlement Border by Palgrave Macmillan, it appears that the German government first demarcated areas in the then Südwest-Afrika in 1886 in the hope of containing an outbreak of Rinderpest.
Beginning in the 1920s, the official police zone border was drawn on Namibian maps with a clearly marked red line.
Over time, the terms 'police zone border' and 'red line' came to be used interchangeably. After 1920, various laws of pre-independent Namibia, such as the Diseases of Stock Proclamation, 1928; the Prohibited Areas Proclamation, 1928, the Animal Diseases and Parasites Ordinance, 1958; the Animal Diseases and Parasites Ordinance, 1959; the Animal Diseases and Parasites Act, 1956 (ADP Act); and the Animal Disease and Parasites Amendment Act, 1973, were promulgated to prevent diseases among livestock. Disease is defined to include various conditions, including anthrax, foot and mouth disease (FMD), rabies and Rinderpest.
Regulations provide, among other things, that no person shall transport or cause or permit to be transported by rail within the Protectorate of South West Africa:
- stock infected with a disease; or
- stock which he or she has grounds for suspecting has been in contact with infected stock, unless the principal veterinary officer has made arrangements with the railway administration or other railway authority in respect of the transport and a permit for the transport of all such stock by rail has been obtained from the principal veterinary officer.
Other provisions deal with the movement of animals into or from an area declared an infected area on account of FMD. The Animal Diseases and Parasites Ordinance of 1958, for the first time, confers upon the administrator a clear and express power to erect and maintain fences necessary for the control of any disease or parasites in, or for preventing the introduction, occurrence or spread thereof, into or within the territory of South West Africa.

Animal health laws and regulations
The ADP Act as a law remained in force after Namibia's independence until it and all amendments thereof were repealed by the Animal Health Act, 2011, on 30 April 2013. Animal identification regulations made under the ADP Act (ADP regulations), among others, deal with the movement of designated animals such as cattle, sheep, goats or pigs and require permits issued by state veterinarians for the movement of designated animals.
An animal in respect of which a movement permit has been issued may not be moved through an area infected with or suspected of being infected with any disease that may affect the animal being moved.
The Animal Health Act of 2011 (AH Act) provides for and authorises the construction of fences, and Section 21(1) of that Act authorises the chief veterinary officer (CVO) to cause a fence, with gates, grids or other passages, to be constructed:
- on any land situated along the international boundaries of Namibia to prevent the straying of animals into or out of Namibia;
- along the boundaries of any game park or private game reserve established by or under the laws relating to nature conservation to prevent the movement of animals into or out of the park or reserve;
- along, on or across public or private roads, or along the boundaries of, or on or across any land for the purpose of controlling animal disease, and may cause any road, including any bridge, causeway, culvert or drift, to be constructed over any land as may be reasonably required for purposes of access for erecting, inspecting and maintaining a fence. According to Section 21(2) of the AH Act, the CVO must notify, in the prescribed manner, the owner or occupier of the land in question of the intention to exercise any power under subsection (1).
The CVO must maintain any fence erected and any gate, grid and other passage installed in terms of sub-section (1) and may, from time to time, effect alterations or replacements thereto as may be considered necessary.
The animal health regulations made under the AH Act define in Regulation 1 thereof “animal disease control fence” as to mean any fence, including the veterinary cordon fence, which has been constructed for the purpose of controlling or preventing animal diseases, while it defines 'veterinary cordon fence' as to mean a fence that runs westwards from the Namibia-Botswana border, separating the foot and mouth disease protection zone from the foot and mouth disease-free zone.
The animal health regulations further contain provisions relating to the notice of intention to construct a fence and the form of giving notice relating to the construction of an animal disease control fence.
Prior to independence, various South African and South West African functionaries had the legal power or mandate to erect, maintain and move fences necessary for the control of any disease or parasites in, or for preventing the introduction, occurrence or spread thereof, into or within the territory.
After independence, the Namibian Ministers of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, responsible for agriculture, had, from 21 March 1990 until 30 April 2013, the power, as contemplated in Section 16(1) of the ADP Act, to erect and maintain fences necessary for the control of any disease or parasites in, or for preventing the introduction, occurrence or spread thereof, into or within Namibia.

Protection
Since 30 April 2013 up until now, the CVO has had the power to erect and maintain fences necessary for the control of any disease or parasites in, or for preventing the introduction, occurrence or spread thereof, into or within Namibia.
The VCF is no longer a colonial structure used to achieve colonial aims and objectives, but is currently a Namibian structure used to achieve Namibian aims and objectives, as it serves as an animal disease control fence as contemplated and authorised in Regulation 89 of the animal health regulations, in order to primarily prevent the spread of FMD into the rest of Namibia.
The VCF serves to protect Namibia’s multibillion-dollar meat industry south of the VCF, as required by the World Organisation for Animal Health, South Africa, the European Union, the United States of America and China, in order to export FMD-free cloven-hoofed animals to them because they will only import Namibian meat as long as it is free from FMD.