New era for DA, Steenhuisen stays at Agriculture: John Matisonn

Key topics:Hill-Lewis expected to run for DA national leader in April congressSteenhuisen remains Agriculture Minister amid FMD outbreak, export growthDA faces local election challenges from splinter parties and voter shifts.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By John Matisonn.Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is expected to throw his hat in the ring for national leader of the Democratic Alliance on Friday, kicking off six weeks of intense politicking until the party congress in Johannesburg on April 11 and 12. Hill-Lewis, who remains the frontrunner given his Cape Town track record and popularity, gave early hints this week of the direction he proposes to take the DA – strong support for the GNU, but a possible increase in pressure to achieve policy impact.“I strongly support the GNU,” the mayor told The Common Sense. “It’s the best chance in two decades to fix what’s broken… but we have to use our influence…”As an example of the GNU’s value, Hill-Lewis pointed to an “explosion of private investment” that followed the end of Eskom’s monopoly on power generation. He also vowed to support coal, oil and gas “as long as they are plentiful and cheap” and create jobs..An early strategic dilemma for the new DA leadership comes as a result of the DA’s increased political opportunities as well as risks – preparing for local elections this year with its most favourable opinion polls in its history, at the same time as increased threats from ethnic parties. Both the Patriotic Alliance and the Freedom Front plus are eating into DA traditional support, among coloured and Afrikaner voters respectively .The third threat is from ActionSouth Africa, especially in Gauteng, where leader Herman Mashaba is running a do-or-die campaign against Zille for the mayoralty in Johannesburg. If Mashaba cannot achieve a breakthrough this time his party may well go the way of all other splinter parties. In the national elections in 2024 the DA concentrated its firepower on keeping these splinter parties from making gains, rather than aiming at the large swathe of disillusioned black ANC voters. The dilemma remains even sharper – does it go for those ANC voters or shore up its defectors to its right? The right leader may be able to go for both, but it will require exceptional political skills and sophistication. Under DA rules Friday is when members are for the first time free to declare their leadership ambitions for to succeed DA leader John Steenhuisen and federal executive chairperson Helen Zille signalled their exit from national leadership.Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen remains Zille’s likely successor, though he may face fiercer competition than Hill-Lewis. Sarupen has signalled he will resign as deputy minister if the party job requires him to choose..Steenhuisen is likely to remain agriculture minister despite media reports that regional leaders want a change after backlash over the ongoing foot and mouth disease outbreak across much of the country. The DA has also yet to complete its investigation into whether he brought the DA into disrepute by his handling of the dismissal of Dr Deon George as minister of fisheries, forestry and environment. George has left the party and may seek a role in environmental affairs at an international level.Steenhuisen dismissed a Mail and Guardian report that regional party leaders want him replaced by Western Cape agriculture MEC Dr Ivan Meyer as national minister. Meyer is a senior figure in the party as national chairperson, and the report said his doctorate was in agricultural economics.“The story is a complete nonsense and a fabrication,” he said, calling it gossip from unreliable media outlets. “I am focussing on the war on foot and mouth and don’t have time for these silly games and gossip.”DA sources who dismissed the report said DA cabinet appointments are made by the party leader alone. Hill-Lewis has described himself as Steenhuisen’s long-time friend and refused to consider the leadership as long as Steenhuisen wanted it, suggesting he is unlikely to move Steenhuisen. The expansion of South African agricultural exports to China on Steenhuisen’s watch would be threatened if Meyer replaced him, because Meyer is on a Chinese sanctions list after he visited Taiwan, banned from interacting with “China, Chinese institutions or companies.” The Chinese government described Meyer’s Taiwan visit as “blatantly violating the one-China principle and grossly interfering in China’s internal affairs.”Meyer and his family “are prohibited from entering the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions of China. They’re also prohibited from conducting economic and trade exchanges with Chinese citizens and institutions,” a January 2025 Chinese consular statement said. While the foot-and-mouth crisis is far from over, Steenhuisen’s biggest success has been at 10% surge in exports last year to $15.1billion despite the US tariff war.Steenhuisen and Chinese ambassador Wu Peng were in Franschhoek this week celebrating the growing Chinese agricultural market for South African products.“China imported $800million, nearly R13billion, worth of agricultural products from South Africa in 2025,among which are R180million, R3billion, are South African fruits,” the ambassador announced. “We are proud of this already strong achievement and we are ready to further enhance our cooperation on this front.”South Africa’s FMD vaccine rollout is expected to begin in March. The Agricultural Research Council’s Onderstepoort Veterinary Research facility is set to produce 20 000 doses per week, with plans to scale up to 200 000 weekly doses from 2027. In the meantime, imported vaccines from Botswana, Argentina and Turkey will help bridge the gap during the rollout.

New era for DA, Steenhuisen stays at Agriculture: John Matisonn

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