DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove John Steenhuisen as agriculture minister after taking over the party in April.
The leader of South Africa’s Democratic Alliance has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove John Steenhuisen, his predecessor and one of the country’s best-known politicians, from the agriculture ministry.
Geordin Hill-Lewis, who took over the DA in April, is seeking a wider reshuffle of the party’s representation in Ramaphosa’s coalition government. The DA holds six cabinet posts and has several deputy ministers after the 2024 general election left no party with a parliamentary majority.
Ramaphosa has not publicly responded to the request, according to the BBC. Hill-Lewis did not give a detailed reason for seeking Steenhuisen’s removal, but the move follows criticism of Steenhuisen’s handling of a recent foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that badly affected South Africa’s livestock industry.
In a statement, Hill-Lewis said he wanted Willie Aucamp to become agriculture minister with an “immediate mandate” to address continuing legal proceedings linked to the outbreak.
Steenhuisen has been nominated instead as deputy minister for trade and industry, a move that would amount to a significant demotion from his current cabinet role. He also faced a financial scandal that contributed to his decision not to seek re-election as DA leader.
The speed of the proposed changes is notable, though Hill-Lewis had signaled after becoming party leader that he would examine the performance of DA officeholders in government. At the time, he said he would make changes if he believed they were needed, adding: “No-one is entitled to any office or position.”
Steenhuisen, 50, has been a central DA figure for more than a decade. He became the party’s parliamentary leader in 2014, took over from Mmusi Maimane in 2019 and was re-elected as party leader in 2023. He had been expected to seek another term before political pressure forced him to abandon that bid.
The DA joined Ramaphosa’s government despite long being a fierce critic of the African National Congress. Steenhuisen led the party during that shift into coalition and later publicly backed Ramaphosa during a tense White House encounter with U.S. President Donald Trump over discredited claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa.
Hill-Lewis has also proposed moving Aucamp to the environment portfolio, replacing David Maynier, and naming Alexandra Abrahams as deputy electricity and energy minister. Other proposed deputy minister appointments include Yusuf Cassim for higher education and training, and Jack Bloom for water and sanitation.
The next step rests with Ramaphosa, whose response will determine whether Hill-Lewis’s first major personnel move as DA leader becomes a formal cabinet reshuffle.
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