John Steenhuisen
Image: SUPPLIED
Farmers are cheering the news that John Steenhuisen has been put out to pasture as agriculture minister.
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, forestry, fisheries, and the environment minister, is a farmer himself and has served as a DA MP 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 DA is the second-biggest party in the 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 said 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 R80bn in losses, while the Free State agriculture sector alone has reportedly lost nearly R18m.
"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 described 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 said in a statement.
"These changes demonstrate DA values in action.
"We believe in accountability in public office, high standards of performance, and responsiveness to the needs of South Africans."
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