Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tina Joemat-Pettersson told the media in Cape Town that while the situation was under control, the matter had also been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health last Friday.
The Ingwavuma area, north of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, (Isimangaliso), Mkuze Game Reserve as well as the area east of the Pongola Nature Reserve had been declared an FMD-controlled area.
"As a result of this development, we have temporarily suspended the official OIE [World Animal Health Organisation] recognised FMD-free status of South Africa," Joemat-Pettersson said.
Though this had financial implications for the country, she said all exports of cloven hoofed animals such as cattle, goats, sheep and their products would be suspended temporarily. However, this would not apply to products which would have been processed to inactivate the FMD virus.
FMD, the minister said, was a severe, highly contagious viral disease which affected livestock and had "significant economic impact."
"Before our trading partners suspend us, we have suspended our operations," she said.
However, Joemat-Pettersson emphasised that her department was on top of the situation and a team of highly experienced experts were on the ground, investigating the matter.
She called for calm and for people not to speculate and panic, as government had rapidly responded to the situation.
While it could have taken a year to bring under control, she said in the next three months, they were likely to have sorted it out. She assured the farming community, saying they were not considering the culling of animals yet.
"Farmers are cautioned to observe bio-security measures - not to allow any new animals into their herds, and to minimize the movement of their own herd to other farms," she said.
The minister also assured the public that meat products were safe for consumption and the affected meat would be destroyed.
Over 600 animals owned by people in the rural KZN have been tested, with 50% testing positive, highlighting that no commercial farmers had been affected.
Dr Botlhe Modisane, one of the two experts who accompanied Joemat-Pettersson said that most of the animals had been tested around dip tanks.
His worry was that the disease could go to southern KwaZulu-Natal, where there were commercial farmers.
He said that culling of animals was costly and not environmentally friendly, and vaccination would be the better way to go.
Modisane said that they often checked for signs of the disease on buffaloes in the Kruger National Park and borders with Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which were FMD protected zones.
Signs of the disease were picked up during one of their regular check up sessions earlier this month.
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