Honeybees are critically important for agriculture and conservation in South Africa. This importance however far exceeds the value derived from honeybees by beekeepers. This implies that commercial beekeepers on their own would not be capable of providing all the necessary funding and infrastructure to support and sustain the honeybee population in South Africa. Support would also be required from all those that derive value from honeybees including the government.

The South African beekeeping industry has in the past been largely isolated from international beekeeping and the world honey market due to political isolation during the apartheid years as well as the fact that honeybees in Africa had relatively few disease problems and had not been threatened. Beekeeping was almost exclusively practised by the white sector of the community.

However since the early 1990’s, beekeepers and honeybees in South Africa have been faced with a series of significant problems including vandalism and theft, the persistent and the continuous loss of bee-friendly forage through habitat destruction, urbanization, and the Working for Water Programme.

International honeybee diseases have also impacted significantly on African honeybees. Two species of mites parasitic on honeybees, the tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi) and the varroa mite (Varroa destructor) have recently been detected in South Africa. Varroa has decimated honeybee colonies in many parts of the world, often causing 95-99% loss of honeybee colonies, and almost eliminating wild honeybee populations.

Two other exotics have recently been detected in Zimbabwe, and may in future have a negative effect on South African honeybee populations. Also since 1990 a problem has emerged caused by the movement within South Africa of colonies of the endemic Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis) to regions outside its natural distribution. The interaction between these Cape honeybees and colonies of the other honeybee species in South Africa proved to be disastrous. The so-called Capensis Problem caused extensive damage in the beekeeping industry in South Africa.

The industry faces the above serious problems at a time when honeybee research capacity in South Africa, as well as government and research support for the industry, are at their lowest levels in 40 years. Most First World countries on the other hand have both extensive honeybee research and disease management centres, and almost all countries allocate resources for the development and extension of beekeeping.

The honeybee/beekeeping agricultural expertise in South Africa is housed in the ARC-Plant Protection Research Institute. The beekeeping section is tasked with the responsibility for all honeybee matters in South Africa; general research, pollination research and support, disease management, effects of pesticides on honeybees and pesticide legislation, extension and beekeeping development. Funding is approximately 60% from central government and 40% from contract research. The vast majority of these funds are spent on personnel costs (Allsopp 2000).It was reported at a meeting of the Section 7 Committee that less than R200 000 had been provided by the industry for beekeeping related research in the previous two years.

There is currently only one agricultural bee researcher in South Africa.  This has meant that the ARC has only been able to focus on core beekeeping research.  While there is currently only one dedicated beekeeping researcher in South Africa there are other (not dedicated beekeeping) researchers that are looking at beekeeping related issues. Table 5 below summarizes the various role-players involved in honeybee research.

Research Role Players in the South African Honeybee Industry

Institution: Agricultural Research Council
Field: Plant Protection Research Institute
Section: Honey bee research, pollination experimentation and allied

Institution: University of the Western Cape
Field: Molecular Biology
Section: DNA

Institution: University of Pretoria
Field: Science
Section:  Pheromone analysis / Capensis problem

Institution: University of Rhodes
Field: Entomology
Section: Classification

Institution: University of Cape Town
Field: Zoology
Section: Flora and fauna interfaces

Institution: University of Stellenbosch
Field: Horticulture
Section: Pollination biology