DA seeks Steenhuisen removal in Cabinet reshuffle bid

Geordin Hill-Lewis has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove John Steenhuisen from the Cabinet, setting up a fresh test of discipline inside the Democratic Alliance and of the Government of National Unity itself. The move would demote Steenhuisen, one of South Africa’s most recognisable politicians, from agriculture minister to deputy minister of trade, industry and competition.

Hill-Lewis wants Willie Aucamp to take over agriculture and has also asked Ramaphosa to appoint Western Cape MEC for Education David Maynier to replace Aucamp in the forestry, fisheries and environment portfolio. The DA leader said the reshuffle was meant to strengthen the party’s contribution to government and better reflect the mandate it won in the 2024 election, a mandate he put at 3.5 million voters.

The personnel shift lands against the backdrop of a bruising agriculture brief for Steenhuisen. His tenure has been dogged by a long-running dispute with SAAI, the farming organisation aligned to AfriForum, and the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled against him in May 2026 over the private rollout of foot-and-mouth disease vaccines by farmers and veterinarians. Hill-Lewis said Aucamp’s immediate task would be to resolve the legal proceedings linked to foot-and-mouth disease, work with the agricultural sector to contain the crisis, and keep opening markets for South African farm exports.

Ramaphosa still has the final say. The presidency confirmed that Hill-Lewis made the request both by telephone and in writing, but any Cabinet change must be formally approved by the president before it takes effect. That leaves Steenhuisen, who led the DA for seven years before handing the party reins to Hill-Lewis in April 2026, in a politically exposed position while the coalition’s largest opposition-turned-governing party presses for one of its most prominent figures to be moved aside.

The reshuffle would also build on an earlier internal DA intervention. In 2025, Steenhuisen removed Dion George from the environment portfolio, which put Aucamp into Cabinet in the first place. Now Aucamp is being moved again, but this time into one of the coalition’s most sensitive portfolios, where conservation groups have already criticised his closeness to the wildlife-ranching, hunting and game-breeding sector.

That is why the fight over Steenhuisen matters beyond one minister’s future. It shows how fragile coalition governance can become when former rivals must share power, manage internal loyalties and sell a united front to voters. If Ramaphosa approves the change, the DA will have signalled party discipline; if the dispute deepens, it could expose how quickly South Africa’s governing model can slide toward chronic instability.