Illustrative Image: DA leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images) 
Mounting internal pressure and the negative public attention directed at his office forced the minister of agriculture, DA leader John Steenhuisen, to ask his newly appointed chief of staff, Roman Cabanac, to resign.
Sources within the DA told Daily Maverick many party members were unhappy with Cabanac’s appointment, warning that it risked alienating voters and undermining the party’s efforts to present itself as a unifying force in South African politics.
“A chief of staff cannot be on the news more than his principal,” said a senior DA member.
“He had to go or John was going to spend a lot of time defending the appointment and not the work of his office.”
Steenhuisen’s appointment of the controversial podcaster in August sparked consternation within the DA and concerns from longstanding DA supporters. A chief of staff is in the third-highest salary band in the government, with an annual remuneration of almost R1.4-million in taxpayers’ money.
Despite a recent attempt by Cabanac to distance himself from his past by acknowledging the harmful nature of his previous statements, his lack of a direct apology only fuelled the growing backlash.
Read more: By rewarding Roman Cabanac’s bigotry, Steenhuisen risks the future of the GNU
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Tori-Steenhuisen_pressclub2.jpg "John Steenhuisen gives a speech to the Cape Town Press Club. (Photo: Screengrab)")
On Thursday afternoon, during a question and answer session after he gave a speech at the Cape Town Press Club, Steenhuisen announced that he had asked Cabanac to resign. He said he informed the DA’s Federal Executive about his decision at a meeting on Wednesday.
“I have had a conversation with Mr Cabanac over the course of the past few days, and I’m happy to admit we don’t always get it right. We never will. People make mistakes; people don’t always get it right. And I think you should be judged on what you do when that mistake has been made — it’s been pointed out to you — and what you do thereafter.
“There has been a conversation with Mr Cabanac. There is a human resources discussion that’s under way,” he said.
“I found it far too distracting from the work of my ministry and our government that he is the news story, rather than the work of the department, and I have asked him, therefore, whether he would consider stepping aside,” he said to applause.
Steenhuisen added that he took “full responsibility” for Cabanac’s controversial appointment.
“In hindsight, there should’ve been a little bit more due diligence done. In hindsight, there should have been greater foresight. But in an environment of a meteor shower coming in after an election, going straight into an intense negotiation, and having an imperative to start performing and doing your duties, I think one could be forgiven slightly for some of the mistakes that do get made along the way,” he said.
Labour lawyer Kgomotso Mufamadi said it may be difficult to remove Cabanac if he refused to resign, which could compel the ministry to offer him a golden handshake — a payment made in the context of a mutual separation agreement.
“The employee has that right [to not agree to a mutual separation agreement],” said Mufamadi.
“The employer would then have to find a way to take him through a lawful process. [The employer] might be able to demonstrate that if, for example, the employee did not disclose or explain what he was doing before, and the minister [could say], ‘Actually, now I find this person to be incompatible with the values of the organisation.’”
Mufamadi noted that proving incompatibility as a form of incapacity was challenging.
“The minister’s best bet is to try [to] negotiate some sort of separation agreement. The employee is under no obligation to resign and, if pressured, could claim constructive dismissal, arguing that the working conditions became intolerable because his employer made it clear he was no longer wanted in the organisation.”
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot_2024-09-08_161602.jpg "Ministry of Agriculture chief of staff Roman Cabanac. (Screenshot: @romancab87)")
Cadre deployment
Responding to a question, Steenhuisen said Cabanac’s appointment was not a form of cadre deployment, as Cabanac was not a member of the DA.
The DA recently confirmed it would pursue its legal challenge to have the ANC’s practice of cadre deployment declared unlawful and unconstitutional.
“I think we also need to understand what is cadre deployment and what is not cadre deployment, because I think some people get caught in the weeds sometimes,” said Steenhuisen.
There were two kinds of employees in government, he said: political employees whose term was linked to the term of office of the office bearer, and “permanent civil servants that are appointed in the public service”.
“Political employees are a feature of political offices the world over… Every politician has an office where political people are appointed to work with them. Those political appointments’ term is linked to the term of office of the public office bearer — the day they go, so too do the deployees go.”
Steenhuisen said there had never been any “beef” from the DA about people employed in ministers’ offices. Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink “all have political office staff in their office”, he said.
“That is not cadre deployment, that is a political deployment in the office of a political principal… Cadre deployment is taking people based on a party affiliation, not on merit, and inserting them into full-time public service positions, [like the] boards of SOEs [state-owned enterprises] and the like.”
Steenhuisen’s decision to dismiss Cabanac is seen as an attempt to restore confidence in his leadership and mitigate the damage caused by the controversy. It also reflects the broader challenges faced by the DA as it seeks to navigate a delicate balance between its more traditional voter base and attempts to broaden its appeal.
As it stands, the DA is one of the few stable parties heading to the 2026 local government elections. The party believes it can bag more municipalities through its participation in the Government of National Unity.
On Wednesday, the party won 16 wards in by-elections across five provinces — five wards in each of North West, Free State and eThekwini and one in Limpopo.
This comes after the party recently lost control of some municipalities in the Western Cape, including Langeberg, Theewaterskloof and Oudtshoorn. DM