The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform, Inge Zaamwani, says trading restrictions have been partially relaxed, allowing cattle to move from feedlots to abattoirs and from abattoirs to traders.

She says the next phase would consider allowing cattle kept outside feedlots to be slaughtered under the supervision of the Directorate of Veterinary Services.

The minister was responding to Swapo Party MP Willem Amutenya, who posed a question on how the ministry could facilitate the supervised slaughter of cattle and support measures available to assist affected vendors and small-scale traders.

"Following the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), the restrictions mean the vendors do not have meat, obviously, and they have closed even the business ecosystem that surrounds it to the point that many of these households that benefited from this ecosystem of business opportunity are completely affected."

The minister said consultations with stakeholders are underway to determine how soon trading could reopen and the type of assistance that could be provided to affected small-scale farmers and traders.

"In terms of what is being done or contemplated in order to assist the affected, especially the small traders and small farmers. That will require a whole-of-nation approach, and the government will be consulting and looking at what can be done in order to assist. And I have been formally requested to start looking at strategies."