‘I have requested the person to apologise’ — Steenhuisen on staff email mocking farmer

Minister of agriculture John Steenhuisen has condemned an email sent by his chief of staff after a screenshot circulated on social media appeared to show a farmer’s correspondence being shared among senior departmental officials “for some amusement”.

The controversy centres on an email allegedly forwarded by Steenhuisen’s chief of staff Jana Le Roux to the department’s head of department, director-general and deputy director-general.

According to screenshots shared online, Le Roux attached a response from Andrew Morphew, a dairy farmer from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, and remarked that she was sharing it “for some amusement”.

The email exchange reportedly followed an appeal by Steenhuisen for members of the public and stakeholders in the agricultural sector to share their concerns with him and his office.

Responding to the backlash on X (formerly Twitter), Steenhuisen condemned the email and said he had instructed the staff member involved to apologise.

“I note an email originating from a ministry staff member. The email was in bad taste and I have requested the person concerned to apologise to the respective parties,” said Steenhuisen.

The minister called for mutual respect.

“We must continue to show mutual respect and always act in good faith because it is only through collaboration that we can overcome major obstacles in the sector,” he said.

The incident has sparked criticism on social media, with former DA MP Renaldo Gouws accusing the ministry of failing to take concerns from farmers seriously at a time when the country is grappling with a severe outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

“This is shameless behaviour from a chief of staff, but what makes this so much worse is that the agriculture department need as much support as they can get with the worst FMD outbreak in recorded history in South Africa, and not only do they mock these roleplayers behind their backs, but they refuse to listen to experts in the field,” Gouws wrote on X.

He further claimed that the document attached to the email was not critical of the department but was intended to assist government efforts to contain the outbreak.

“The worst part is the document he attached was to thank the minister for securing vaccines and to ask how they could assist in the rollout of these vaccines, and how the farmers could get some of these vaccines to start private vaccinations,” said Gouws.

Update: The organisation FMD Response SA responded on social media to Steenhuisen, saying it accepted his apology.

“[We] look forward to working with the minister and Department of Agriculture to ensure timeous vaccination of SA’s 14 million cattle. Both the private sector and the state need to be able vaccinate cattle against FMD at speed and scale.”

TimesLIVE