The announcement that John Steenhuisen will no longer serve as South African (SA) minister of agriculture has farmers applauding.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has demoted Steenhuisen to deputy minister of trade, industry and competition.
Willie Aucamp will now take over agriculture.
Aucamp, until now the forestry, fisheries and environment minister, is a farmer himself and has served as a DA member of parliament since 2024.
Hill-Lewis, in a letter to president Cyril Ramaphosa, requested this change as well as other adjustments to the DA’s roles in SA’s coalition government, as previously reported.
The request still needs to be rubber-stamped by Ramaphosa before it can take effect.
Hill-Lewis also asked for the following:
David Maynier, currently Western Cape education minister, to be moved into Aucamp’s old post; shift Alexandra Abrahams from deputy trade minister to deputy minister of energy and electricity, replacing Samantha Graham-Maré, who would leave the executive entirely; bring Jack Bloom, the DA’s Gauteng health spokesperson, into government as deputy minister of water and sanitation, replacing Isaac Seitlholo; and remove Mimmy Gondwe as deputy minister of higher education and replace her with Yusuf Cassim, currently the DA’s Eastern Cape provincial chairperson.
The DA is the second-biggest party in the government of national unity (GNU) and holds six minister posts and six deputy minister posts.
Steenhuisen led the DA for years before stepping down as party leader in April, making way for Hill-Lewis, Cape Town mayor, to take charge.
The Transvaal Agricultural Union (TLU SA) has welcomed the decision.
TLU SA’s Henry Geldenhuys says Steenhuisen’s handling of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak was “extremely poor”.
FMD is a highly contagious viral illness that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep, and pigs.
SA is dealing with a severe FMD outbreak that has spread across all nine provinces, with cases rising into the hundreds, including more than 620 in the Free State.
The outbreak is estimated to have caused about R80 billion in losses, while the Free State agriculture sector alone has reportedly lost nearly R18 million.
“TLU was part of the task team that worked directly with Steenhuisen and the government,” Geldenhuys told IOL.
“We made several attempts to move the rollout of the vaccine to the private sector, but there were constant obstacles.
“As a result, farmers are suffering losses; I mean, the dairy industry has experienced livestock losses due to FMD. Steenhuisen and the government dragged their feet in speeding up that process.
“In light of this, I want to say that from TLU’s side, we are positive about his replacement, and perhaps there will now be better outcomes in the future.”
Steenhuisen has recently also received flak after an email from his office, linked to his chief of staff Jana le Roux, was leaked and widely circulated.
In the email, a farmer’s request for engagement on FMD was forwarded to senior officials, with a note describing it as being shared “for some amusement”.
The message caused anger in the farming community.
Steenhuisen has since distanced himself from the email, saying it was “in bad taste” and that he had asked Le Roux to apologise.
Geldenhuys describes Aucamp, on the other hand, as someone who understood what farmers dealt with.
Hill-Lewis confirmed the proposal to move Steenhuisen out of the portfolio, along with the other changes to the DA’s GNU portfolios, on Wednesday.
He said he had written to Ramaphosa “setting out several changes to the DA’s representation in the national executive”.
“It is my judgement that the renewed team announced today will strengthen the DA’s contribution to government and give better effect to the mandate received from 3.5 million voters in the 2024 elections,” Hill-Lewis says in a statement.
“These changes demonstrate DA values in action.”
On the agriculture move, Hill-Lewis gave Steenhuisen some credit for his time in the job, saying he “spearheaded the expansion of market access for SA’s agricultural products, and made progress in the procurement and distribution of vaccines for FMD”.
– IOL
