PREVIEW
The party’s ‘grand dame’ Helen Zille, was thought to be behind the exit as she launches her campaign to become mayor of Johannesburg
Outgoing Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen hopes that by agreeing to stand down in April he will keep his cabinet seat as Agriculture Minister in the Government of National Unity coalition.
Steenhuisen confirmed on 4 February that he would not stand for a third term at the DA’s leadership elections in April after being cleared by the DA’s federal legal commission of claims that he misappropriated funds via the use of his party credit card. But he still faces charges of ‘bringing the party into disrepute’.
During his resignation statement, Steenhuisen said that he would focus on leading the government’s response – widely criticised by the farming community – to an ongoing outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
But plenty are gunning for his dismissal. The sacking of Dion George as Environment Minister last November and George’s subsequent accusations that Steenhuisen had been ‘captured by the ANC’ has fuelled others such as DA federal executive chair Helen Zille, one of Steenhuisen’s most vocal critics over his tactics within the GNU.
Letters to Steenhuisen’s ministry from farming industry groups demanding that they be allowed to privately administrate foot and mouth vaccines may encourage Zille and others to force him out to avoid the DA losing chunks of its core vote among farmers, particularly ahead of provincial and municipal elections due later in the year.
The upcoming elections pose a major test for the DA and for the coalition’s viability, with the party set to trade blows with the GNU’s senior partner, African National Congress.
That was evident from a DA statement unveiling its mayoral candidates in the Western Cape warning that ‘voters have a choice: jobs or decline, safety or chaos, delivery or decay, and good governance or continued corruption.’
Three names have emerged as early contenders for the DA leadership: Geordin Hill-Lewis, the Mayor of Cape Town, Solly Malatsi, the Minister for Communications and Digital Technologies, and Alan Winde, Premier of Western Cape province. But some want the charismatic Hill-Lewis to be allowed to run unopposed (AC Vol 65 No 12, How Western Cape tested the opposition's coalition strategy).
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