DA leader John Steenhuisen will put his focus on the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) following his announcement bowing out of the party’s leadership race in April.
The DA leader and minister of agriculture announced this after a tense confrontation with the party’s crucial constituency in the farming sector.
The Afrikaans farming community has since taken legal action against the department, frustrated by its response to the worst-ever outbreak of FMD.
“For the rest of this term of office, I will focus all my time and energy as minister of agriculture on defeating the most devastating foot-and-mouth disease outbreak our country has ever seen, and to pursue mass vaccination to ensure that this is the last mass outbreak of FMD our country ever sees,” Steenhuisen said.
“After leading the DA into the GNU, my next chapter must be to eradicate this devastating disease from our shores once and for all. That is 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.”
On Friday attorneys for Sakeliga, the Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai) and Free State Agriculture were instructed to approach the courts to review and set aside what they called “Steenhuisen’s apparently unlawful prohibition, and to apply for further or alternative relief as applicable”.
In the long story of the DA and its predecessors, dating back at least to 1959, there is only one leadership era that will ever be remembered for marshalling our party across the Rubicon, into national government. Only one. And it is this one
— John Steenhuisen
The farming community is seeking to procure and administer foot-and-mouth disease vaccines. Tensions between Steenhuisen and farmers are said to have led to Steenhuisen’s withdrawal from the party’s leadership race.
Insiders said pressure was mounting for Steenhuisen to be removed from his ministerial position.
Steenhuisen praised his tenure as leader for having marshalled the DA across the Rubicon, into national government.
“Against all the odds, a party that once languished at 1.7% of the national vote, that was subsequently seen as little more than a regional party and regarded as too arrogant and oppositional to play any national role, now carried the hopes and dreams of our 3.5-million voters into national government for the first time ever. That we were able to get back to growth after the previous leader walked off the job. That we had the strategic foresight to reposition the party in anticipation of the coalition era.
“That we were able to negotiate our way into becoming a leading partner in South Africa’s first-ever democratically elected national multiparty government. And that we have since leveraged our influence in government to set South Africa on a fundamentally better path is an achievement that will go down in history.
“In the long story of the DA and its predecessors, dating back at least to 1959, there is only one leadership era that will ever be remembered for marshalling our party across the Rubicon, into national government. Only one. And it is this one,” he said.
Insiders previously told TimesLIVE that Steenhuisen had met with Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis in the days leading up to his announcement. Hill-Lewis has been considered the likely favourite to take over as DA leader.
Hill-Lewis had previously said that he would not enter into the race against Steenhuisen.
Steenhuisen, who will finish his term in April, said the next mission that beckons for the party is to build upon his legacy and the DA’s success in the GNU to turn the party into the biggest in South Africa and lead the next coalition in 2029.
He said polling figures showed the DA was within reach of becoming the country’s biggest party ahead of the ANC, a feat he attributed to his leadership.
“The DA I inherited was reading its own obituary in a country that was in rapid decline. The DA I leave behind co-governs a country that is firmly on the up. It is now up to the next generation of leadership to ensure that the DA continues to do so with ever-growing confidence for many more years to come, so that we can deliver the country of our dreams to all of our children.”
TimesLIVE
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