Very ugly and disgraceful stuff about John Steenhuisen

Former DA leader Tony Leon said there were many controversies about John Steenhuisen, including “very ugly stuff which was disgraceful”.

Leon shared this information during an interview with News24 editor-in-chief, Adrian Basson, on the ‘On The Record’ podcast.

He responded to accusations from Steenhuisen that he used his political influence in the Democratic Alliance to benefit his firm, Resolve Communications.

Resolve Communications was founded by Tony Leon, who served as DA leader and South Africa’s Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

The company’s CEO is Paul Boughey, who previously served as the Democratic Alliance’s chief executive. He resigned in 2019 to join Leon’s firm.

Steenhuisen claimed that Resolve Communications actively drove the relentless public narrative criticising him and his chief of staff at the Department of Agriculture.

He added that Resolve Communications regularly used its political proximity to the DA to approach him and other Government of National Unity (GNU) cabinet ministers.

Steenhuisen said that they were approached to facilitate meetings on behalf of their private corporate clients.

He said he found this behaviour highly concerning, given how close the firm’s leadership is to the DA itself. He flagged it internally to the party caucus as a major ethical risk.

ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont also accused Resolve Communications of improper conduct.

He said that Leon’s agency, acting on behalf of one of its clients, did things when Herman Mashaba was mayor of Johannesburg.

“Tony Leon had requested a meeting with Mashaba, and given Leon’s status as former leader of the party, Mashaba had agreed to meet him on 5 April 2019,” he wrote.

“At that meeting, Leon, as executive chairman of Resolve Communications, had pitched a product of one of his clients to the city for R300 million.”

According to Beaumont, the Democratic Alliance turned on Mashaba the moment that he refused to adhere to Leon’s demands.

Tony Leon has harsh words about John Steenhuisen

In the interview with Basson, Leon said he reached out to Steenhuisen on numerous occasions amid controversies surrounding the former DA leader.

“There were a lot of controversies about John. There was stuff about the credit card and various default judgments, very ugly stuff,” he said.

“I thought it was disgraceful, and I told him that this being put in the public domain didn’t belong there. Still, I sent him a message of support.”

Leon then wrote an article for News24 about issues related to Steenhuisen and the DA, which he regularly did.

“I wrote an article, and it was extremely diplomatically worded. The article was not about him personally at all,” Leon said.

“I wrote, ‘Well, the DA leader said this about the strategy in the government of national unity (GNU), but this is what was said in 2019.”

“I understand their constraints, but maybe they must get back to what he himself had said were the core values of the party.”

Leon argued that the original value of the Democratic Alliance sometimes got muffled in the government of national unity.

“I even understood and explained exactly what those constraints were in the column, which was published in December 2025.”

“You must be aware of what the values and principles are. He took extreme exception to this,” Leon said.

He said that any attempts to reach out to Steenhuisen after that article were ignored. This included a letter linked to the leadership change at the DA.

“When all this stuff started about a potential change of leadership, I wrote him a very carefully worded, decent, nice, and friendly letter giving my views,” he said.

“It was simply ignored. I didn’t get so much as a thank you or a ‘get stuffed.’ There was no response at all.”

John Steenhuisen is not a baby or a victim

Leon responded to claims that he used his political influence to arrange meetings through Steenhuisen, including with Starlink.

“I asked John to meet the most senior executive of SpaceX who has come to South Africa. He said, “With pleasure”. He expressed no discomfort at all,” said Leon.

“I didn’t attend the meeting, and I don’t know what happened there, but I understood it went very well on both his account and the executive’s account.”

“I was told he later announced his unhappiness at some DA ministerial grouping. The current party leader handled that in his role.”

He questioned Steenhuisen’s accusations of being influenced and pressured into arranging or attending meetings with Resolve Communications clients.

“John is not a baby. John is not some victim. He is an adult. He is over 50. He is the leader of the second-largest party in South Africa and a minister of state,” he said.

“Yet, he says he felt uncomfortable. I felt uncomfortable or pressured a hundred times when I was the leader of the DA.”

“I faced pressure to do things, but I did them and took the consequences. I didn’t complain about being put under pressure.”

“It is called having agency. If you are a minister of state, you have to take personal political agency for what you do and what you don’t do.”

Leon said that he did not hold a gun to anyone’s head or say, ‘If you don’t have this meeting, terrible things are going to happen.’ “That is nonsense,” he said.