GHL finally axes Steenhuisen

On 17 June 2026 the new DA leader, Mr Geordin Hill-Lewis, wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa requesting the removal of John Steenhuisen from the agriculture portfolio, and appoint him deputy minister of trade, industry and competition. Mr Willie Aucamp would take the agriculture role, and old DP stalwart David Maynier, currently MEC for education in the Western Cape, is to take Aucamp’s position. The Presidency has yet to respond.

The request cites the continued consensus of hostility against Steenhuisen for his management of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, which resulted in an embarrassing court ruling against the department, brought by commercial rights advocacy group Sakeliga.

But Steenhuisen has been dogged by other scandals, and has few defenders in any area of public life aside from his own colleagues. His first two scandals came from the hiring of former podcaster Roman Cabanac, who was targeted by progressive activists and the state-aligned press for having unacceptable views, and for defending the ANC in the White House against allegations of mishandling rural safety and security concerning farm murders.

In November 2025 reports emerged that a default judgment had been entered against Steenhuisen in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court in May 2025 for unpaid personal credit-card debt of approximately R150,000. His ministerial salary at the time was R2.69 million a year. The DA’s federal finance committee had earlier revoked his party-issued credit card in March 2025 after reconciliation difficulties. Mr Steenhuisen stated that he had returned the card voluntarily; the then finance chairman, Mr Dion George, maintained that the committee had acted on its own initiative because of unresolved discrepancies. Allegations were made that party funds had been used for personal expenses.

Steenhuisen requested President Ramaphosa to remove George as minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment in retaliation. George was replaced by Willie Aucamp, who faced allegations of corrupt ties and vested interests in the industry he now presides over as Minister. The move triggered a public dispute, and George accused Steenhuisen of acting without proper internal consultation, of undermining party procedures and of aligning the DA too closely with the African National Congress. George then resigned from the DA in January and submitted a complaint to the Public Protector alleging abuse of office.

As agriculture minister, Steenhuisen’s lockdown policy, combined with the refusal to let farmers vaccinate their herds, resulted in enormous losses to the agricultural sector, though only independent farmers were negatively affected. The main corporate cartels represented by AgriSA and AgriBiz continued to support his ministry as their smaller competitors were gradually bankrupted.

Other disputes with small and independent farmers, particularly as they related to US trade disputes and rural security, were treated with disdain, and the largest representative of farmers in Southern Africa, Theo de Jager, was airbrushed out of a departmental public relations photograph, after criticising the department early last year.

On 25 May 2026 the Gauteng High Court granted interim relief to applicants including Sakeliga, the Southern African Agri Initiative and Free State Agriculture. The order permits farmers and feedlots to procure and administer approved vaccines privately, subject to notification requirements. The court interdicted Mr Steenhuisen, the department’s director-general and the director of animal health from interfering in commercial supply arrangements between importers and foreign manufacturers. It found no statutory basis for prohibiting private vaccination and awarded costs against the minister and officials on the highest scale. Mr Steenhuisen described the ruling as puzzling and stated that existing departmental arrangements already accommodate private participation.

But his troubles were not yet over. After removing his first chief of staff Roman Cabanac after an aggressive campaign launched by IRR researcher Gabriel Crouse, Steenhuisen replaced him with Jana la Roux, who made her and her colleagues disdain for farmers dramatically transparent when she shared emails ridiculing struggling farmers for complaining of their mismanagement, and when speaking to the head of the Free state Agri Union, threatening to “fuck them up” in court.

This proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. After year of scandal, including mismanagement, financial irresponsibility, and an extramarital affair with the wife of Michael Beaumont, a partial motivator for Beaumont’s departure to rival party Action SA, new leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has finally been forced to push him out.

Yet despite behaving in ways that have drawn comparisons to ANC cadres, Steenhuisen will be allowed to continue drawing a generous government salary for as long as the DA has the capacity to guarantee it.