Goodbye, John Steenhuisen

Democratic Alliance leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has reportedly asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove John Steenhuisen as Minister of Agriculture.

According to a Bloomberg report, citing Rapport, he asked that Steenhuisen be moved to the role of Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition.

Willie Aucamp, the current minister for forestry, fisheries and the environment, would succeed Steenhuisen, Bloomberg reported.

President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed John Steenhuisen as South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture on 3 July 2024.

This position formed part of the negotiations which ultimately created the country’s government of national unity.

Steenhuisen has been a liability for the Democratic Alliance, with one debacle after the next hitting his department.

Since taking office as the Minister of Agriculture, he has faced several high-profile controversies, administrative problems, and legal challenges.

The ongoing management of a severe Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak has drawn immense criticism from the agricultural sector.

Steenhuisen’s department has been widely criticised for maintaining exclusive state control over vaccine distribution.

It has prohibited private-sector livestock groups and veterinarians from independently procuring and administering vaccines to speed up the process.

In a legal battle around the issue, livestock farmers, represented by the Southern African Afgri Initiative (Saai), won a High Court order against Steenhuisen.

The court ruled that the Minister and his department had unlawfully prohibited farmers from vaccinating their own cattle.

To add fuel to the fire, Steenhuisen’s office faced intense public backlash after an internal email was leaked on social media this month.

FMD Response SA sent a formal, collaborative letter requesting a joint public-private biosecurity strategy.

Steenhuisen’s Chief of Staff, Jana le Roux, forwarded the letter to the department’s top officials with a note that described it as sent “for some amusement.”

Many calls for John Steenhuisen to be fired

The decision from Geordin Hill-Lewis comes after many experts have called for Steenhuisen to be removed from his position.

One of these people is Martin van Staden, Head of Policy at the Free Market Foundation, who did not mince his words.

“The only way the DA can claw back moral credibility on this is for the party to publicly recall Steenhuisen and clearly cite his office’s repudiation of core values,” he said.

Renowned political analyst Frans Cronje also said Steenhuisen so badly botched the response to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that he should be fired.

He slated Steenhuisen’s performance as Agriculture Minister, saying he deviated from the DA’s principles of a small state empowering the private sector.

He said that, rather than empowering farmers, Steenhuisen introduced a policy stating that the government would procure and apply vaccines solely.

Farmers and private veterinarians were actively blocked from administering vaccines, despite routinely handling much more dangerous diseases successfully.

This caused horrific animal suffering, specifically in the dairy industry, and resulted in tremendous losses in the livestock sector.

“Small-scale and emerging Black farmers without access to premier private care were completely decimated by the policy,” he said.

The Pretoria High Court delivered a scathing judgment against Steenhuisen and his department for actively engineering legal delays to block the matter from being heard quickly.

He explained that it was frightening for a DA minister to resort to such tactics, and that the court had to lecture him on basic constitutional principles.

Cronje said that Steenhuisen’s actions as Agriculture Minister completely contradict the DA’s core principles regarding government.

He highlighted that the DA’s historical campaign platform has always been that the state should be small and efficient while empowering the private sector.

“Instead, Steenhuisen chose a highly centralised, statist approach when it came to the foot-and-mouth disease response,” Cronje said.

He added that Steenhuisen’s performance was so poor that most ANC ministers would have been better.

“The new DA leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, should have fired him on day one for this because it was such an abomination,” Cronje said.

“If Steenhuisen survives the pending cabinet reshuffle, it will be a terrible blight on Hill-Lewis.”

Geordin Hill-Lewis’s statement

Following a careful assessment of the DA’s team in the Government of National Unity, I have written to President Ramaphosa setting out several changes to the Democratic Alliance’s representation in the National Executive.

It is my judgement that the renewed team announced today will strengthen the DA’s contribution to government and give better effect to the mandate received from 3.5 million voters in the 2024 elections.

Willie Aucamp will replace John Steenhuisen as Minister of Agriculture. During his tenure, Minister Steenhuisen spearheaded the expansion of market access for South Africa’s agricultural products and made progress in the procurement and distribution of vaccines for Foot-and-Mouth disease (FMD).

Minister Aucamp’s immediate mandate is to resolve ongoing legal proceedings relating to FMD, to work with the entire sector to overcome the crisis and restore confidence through accelerated practical steps to bring the crisis under control.

Minister Aucamp will also further the work of opening new markets to our agricultural products to help grow the economy and create jobs.

David Maynier will take up the position of Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. He has had a distinguished career leading frontline portfolios in the National Assembly and the Western Cape Government, and I have every faith in his ability to make a positive impact in the national Cabinet.

John Steenhuisen will replace Alexandra Abrahams as Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, where he will focus on the successes he has achieved in expanding market access and will now add new areas of work to support industrial growth, improve competitiveness, and work with business and labour to help unlock job creation.

Alexandra Abrahams moves to the role of Deputy Minister of Electricity and Energy. She brings tenacity, discipline and a reform-minded approach to one of the country’s most crucial growth portfolios.

Yusuf Cassim, who has served on the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and has roots in student politics, will be appointed Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training.

Jack Bloom, the longest-serving member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and a veteran campaigner for good governance, will take up the position of Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation.

These changes demonstrate Democratic Alliance values in action. We believe in accountability in public office, high standards of performance, and responsiveness to the needs of South Africans.

It is my firm expectation that each person representing the DA in government must unmistakably demonstrate the “DA difference” in action. That requires a government rooted in our philosophical outlook, with higher standards of public service, and absolute commitment to integrity.

In every decision I take, no matter how difficult, I seek to advance the attainment of an open, opportunity society for all – a society in which every person can live a life of value. These changes will enhance the DA’s ability to give effect to that vision for South Africa.