Steenhuisen to resign, or be pushed?

John Steenhuisen, leader of South Africa’s Democratic Alliance (DA) since 2020 (interim from 2019) and current Minister of Agriculture in the Government of National Unity (GNU), has not formally resigned from any position as of the latest available information on February 4, 2026.He is widely expected to announce today that he will withdraw from the DA federal leadership race and not seek re-election at the party’s federal congress in April 2026. This would effectively end his tenure as DA leader but allow him to remain in his ministerial role.

Steenhuisen scheduled a media briefing for 10:00 AM on February 4 in his hometown of Durban, described as addressing matters of “national importance”: “Tomorrow at 10am, I will make an announcement of national importance. Until you see me outlining the full set of facts tomorrow, avoid speculation.” His post was accompanied by a photograph of then-newly elected President Truman holding up a newspaper announcing his imminent election losses, a clear rebuke of speculation he would stand down.

But multiple major media outlets have been contacted by DA insiders (including Daily Maverick, Bloomberg, eNCA, TimesLIVE, and Moneyweb) who contradict Steenhuisen’s public statements, indicating that this is not a resignation so much as a lynching, though one which the public has been clamouring in recent weeks.

It is clear that Steenhuisen has been a disaster, and has been a lightning rod for the party’s failures in government, many of which are baked into the coalition agreement, such as their unconditional surrender of “sealed mandates” (i.e., the Ministers having control over their own departments). This has meant the coalition partners have been forced to implement the ANC’s race quotas in all their glory.

The public rift with former DA finance chairperson and ex-Minister Dion George caused information of Steenhuisen’s financial irregularities and vested interests to leak, including exorbitant credit card debts and abuse of the party credit card. Vested interests in the game farming industry associated with the replacement of George with Willie Aucamp, as well as the clearly draconian and incompetent way in which Steenhuisen has run his own department, combining a lack of internal discipline with sweeping restrictions on the private sector, have done in his reputation.

Criticism of Steenhuisen’s handling of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak as Agriculture Minister has been stringent – the use of an irregular private monopoly contract combined with months-long lockdowns threaten to destroy the bulk of small and medium stock farmers, while megaboers represented by AgriSA have supported the government’s destructive measures, largely because of their vested interest in the destruction of smaller competitors, whose land and stock can be cheaply absorbed in a crisis.

The implementation of race quotas for EU export permits has created a particular stink – whether the DA feel free to push back on these policies or not, they are morally reprehensible. Considering that the party’s de facto leader Helen Zille was willing to shelter murderers and terrorists like Tony Yengeni at her home in the 1980s, her insistence on adherence to racialist policies in the present, which do not even require lawbreaking for their ministers to circumvent, make the DA appear deeply corrupt and hypocritical.

Of course, a weakening relationship with Helen Zille was likely the last straw. Zille remains the main decisionmaker in the party, with the closest relationships to the party’s donors. Steenhuisen acquiring the false belief that his nominal leadership gave him meaningful autonomy would have been fatal hubris.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is widely seen as the frontrunner and likely to run unopposed or as the strong favorite. Other names mentioned include Solly Msimanga, though none of these alternatives have the name recognition of GHL nor the deep relationship to Helen Zille required to make the cut.

The move introduces some uncertainty for the GNU but is viewed primarily as an internal DA matter, not a direct threat to the coalition. The coalition, after all, is regarded as existentially necessary, at any cost.

If Steenhuisen refuses to go, he may find more unpleasant truths coming out which hasn’t the wherewithal to defend against.