By Des Erasmus
DA leader John Steenhuisen will not contest for re-election as party leader come April, saying on Wednesday he wanted to focus on his duties as minister of agriculture instead, and on efforts to contain the devastating foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) gripping the South African farming community.
“I today announce that I will not seek re-election for a third term as a DA federal leader at the party’s upcoming Federal Congress, and I do so with a full heart, knowing that…my work in government now requires me to, similarly, pour my heart and soul and all of my energy into defeating Foot and Mouth Disease,” he said at a press briefing in Durban.
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Sections of the DA’s traditional farming-aligned constituency have been openly scathing about Steenhuisen’s response to the ongoing and financially devastating FMD crisis.
The animosity has spilled into party politics and organised agriculture.
In the DA’s own internal milieu, a “strong Afrikaans lobby” has been reported as being unhappy with how Steenhuisen has handled the outbreak – the worst in the country’s history.
Prominent farming and agribusiness lobby groups have intensified pressure publicly and legally.
Sakeliga, the Southern African Agri Initiative (SAAI), and Free State Agriculture have issued a letter of demand and threatened litigation, saying that farmers and the private sector should be able to procure and administer FMD vaccines without “state gatekeeping and red tape”.
The latest outbreak was confirmed on 10 July 2025. By December, in a written parliamentary reply, Steenhuisen put the average annual loss of revenue from FMD at about R5.6 billion.
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Surrounded by friends and family at Wednesday’s briefing, Steenhuisen said he believed he had delivered what he set out to do when he took over as DA leader in 2019, including steering the party into national government for the first time.
He said the DA’s entry into the Government of National Unity after the July 2024 agreement with President Cyril Ramaphosa was “the single greatest achievement in the history of our party,” as it shifted the DA from being permanent opposition to a governing force.
Steenhuisen said his leadership was defined by the party’s “Moonshot” strategy, aimed at positioning the DA for coalition-era politics and national power.
“In April 2023, following my re-election as Federal Leader with a decisive mandate of 83% from Federal Congress delegates, I announced that the DA was ready to take this Moonshot,” he said.
“[W]e were going to shed our image as a party that only shouted at others from the comfort of the side-lines, and mature into a party that gets stuck in to fix the country we all love.”
He said the DA had since used its influence in government to push economic reforms, and claimed key improvements under the GNU.
“The GNU has more than doubled economic growth during its first calendar year in office,” he said. “South Africa recently got its first credit rating upgrade in twenty years, and we have been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list.”
He also said he was proud of building a new generation of DA leaders during his tenure.
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“[O]ne of the things I am most proud of is the pool of talent I actively nurtured in the DA,” he said.
“Whether it is Siviwe Gwarube, Ashor Sarupen, Leon Schreiber, Dean Macpherson, Solly Malatsi, Mimmy Gondwe, or Sello Seitlolo as Ministers and Deputy Ministers, or Geordin Hill-Lewis and Cilliers Brink as mayors of metropolitan cities — these talented young leaders and many others like them, became household names during my tenure because I worked to empower them at every turn.”
Regarding his position as agriculture minister, he said: “This not a part-time job”.
“It would not be fair to the incredible farmers of South Africa for me to split my time between battling the worst FMD outbreak ever on the one hand, while also running an internal campaign for the next three months and then leading a local government election campaign, on the other hand.”
Steenhuisen said he would back the next DA leader, whoever it was.
He had left the DA in a stronger position than when he became leader, he said.
“[I am handing] over the reins to a fundamentally healthier party than the one I inherited.”
“Instead of 16%, the DA is now consistently polling at 30%, and is within striking distance of becoming the biggest political party in South Africa.”
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