According to the Director of health and animal safety, Patrick Chikungwa, the meat imports ban that was announced in January this year, is still in effect.

In January, the Ministry of Agriculture imposed a ban on meat/livestock imports from South Africa, following an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease. The ban is specifically on all cloven hoofed animals meat from SA, while on the other hand, other infected countries’ meat imports faced a temporary suspension of issuance of livestock movement.

Meanwhile, authorities in Zimbabwe have re-imposed their own ban on meat imports from South Africa, following the same from Lesotho and Swaziland. Al Jazeera also reported that Harare’s Ministry of Agriculture agreed the decision to re-impose the ban in order to avoid the spread of the disease.