DA eyes local government polls as Geordin Hill-Lewis makes big moves

John Steenhuisen took over the DA leadership from Mmusi Maimane to stabilise the party’s support base, particularly white Afrikaners, who felt sidelined by Maimane’s attempts to attract new ­voters. Seven years later, this same constituency has largely cost Steenhuisen the party leadership and his ministerial position.

When DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis announced on Wednesday, 17 June, that he had asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove John Steenhuisen from his Cabinet and also reshuffle other DA members of the executive, the move was framed as part of a broader reassessment of the DA’s Government of National Unity (GNU) team.

But with local elections looming, the DA can ill afford Steenhuisen’s perceived mishandling of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) crisis as agriculture minister, which threatens to alienate parts of its conservative Afrikaans support base. The reshuffle is an attempt to placate this constituency, where it faces fierce competition from the FF Plus ahead of the polls.

The DA also faces pressure from another front, having lost repeated by-elections to the PA, which is moving in on another key constituency: coloured voters.

In a statement, Hill-Lewis said that he had written to Ramaphosa proposing several changes to the DA’s representation in the national executive, arguing that the “renewed team” would strengthen the party’s contribution to government and better reflect the mandate it had received from voters in the 2024 elections.

“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,” he said.

“It is my firm expectation that each person representing the DA in government must unmistakably demonstrate the ‘DA difference’ in action. That requires a government rooted in our philosophical outlook, with higher standards of public service and absolute commitment to integrity.”

Steenhuisen, Hill-Lewis said, will be demoted to deputy minister of trade, industry and competition, and Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Willie Aucamp will succeed him as agriculture minister. Hill-Lewis further proposed that Western Cape MEC for education, David Maynier, be appointed to the Cabinet in Aucamp’s old position.

Moving the players

The proposed reshuffle extends beyond agriculture and the environment. Alexandra Abrahams would move to deputy minister of electricity and energy, replacing Samantha Graham. Yusuf Cassim, who was a member of the Eastern Cape legislature, would become deputy minister of higher education and training, replacing Dr Mimmy Gondwe. Jack Bloom, the long-serving Gauteng MPL, would become deputy minister of water and sanitation, replacing Isaac Seitlholo.

It’s unclear how these proposed changes to the national executive will affect the DA’s local government election strategy or whether they are aimed at positioning the party better in the GNU.

According to the DA leader, Aucamp’s “immediate mandate” is to resolve the continuing legal proceedings relating to FMD, work with the sector to overcome the crisis, and “restore confidence” through accelerated practical steps to bring the outbreak under control.

Hill-Lewis’s proposed reshuffle is ostensibly a calculated political triage intended to restore trust with farmers under Aucamp and aggressively signal the “DA difference” to voters ahead of the polls.

“The data must have shown that there’s a vulnerability among conservative Afrikaans voters,” said elections analyst Wayne Sussman. “It’s clear that [Hill-Lewis] decided he had to act.

“I think the farm community, which isn’t just farmers sitting on their tractors or sitting by their pens, but extends to WhatsApp groups of family members in metropolitan areas where the DA is highly dependent on voters, were supportive of Steenhuisen when he became the agriculture minister, and I think he had some early wins.

“But it’s clear that foot-and-mouth disease became the albatross around his neck and he couldn’t shake it off. And I’m sure that the DA’s internal polling has shown that it was struggling with those areas and that parties like the FF Plus were making inroads.”

Eyes on the polls

The agricultural community is a crucial constituency for the DA, which faces fierce competition from the FF Plus for the rural farming vote. This made the agriculture portfolio critical for the DA when it entered the GNU; it was supposed to demonstrate its good governance and ability to unlock economic growth in the sector.

“In 2019 and 2021, the DA’s Achilles heel was Afrikaans voters, more so in the north of the country, and this is one of the reasons it declined in both those elections,” said Sussman. “Of course, this is one of the reasons Steenhuisen ended up becoming the leader of the DA.

“He was also successful in getting many of those voters back in 2024. When he stood down as DA leader, part of his legacy was that he did grow the party in the last election in a very competitive environment.”

The DA won 21.8% of the national vote in the 2024 elections, managing to claw back the Afrikaans votes lost to the FF Plus in 2019. This was evidenced by the margin of the DA’s growth nationally (+1%) and the FF Plus’s dip in support (-1.02%).

In 2024, the DA grew in both North West and Limpopo, provinces where much of its conservative support base resides and where Sussman said he believes it would be “under tremendous threat” from the FF Plus ahead of the 2026 local elections.

“The most important places where the Afrikaans community is big are obviously Tshwane, Pretoria; Mangaung, Bloemfontein; and Ekurhuleni, the East Rand metropolitan area ... also places like Mogale City, Krugersdorp. But historically, the areas where there are deeply conservative voters in South Africa are Limpopo, in the Waterberg region, and also in North West, in places like Schweizer-Reneke.

“But what the DA could certainly ill afford is losing a lot of its core base in a place like Pretoria, Tshwane,” he said.

Sussman referred to a recent by-election in Centurion in which the FF Plus performed well in an area that was traditionally a safe seat for the DA. “I think when the DA saw that result in Tshwane… there must have been some alarm bells – some jitters – that all is not going swimmingly, even if Cilliers Brink is going to be the [Tshwane] mayoral candidate for the party and is a prominent Afrikaans leader in the DA.”

Another headache

At the same time, the DA faces pressure from the PA in parts of the Western Cape. Sussman noted that the DA’s “historic blue wall” was formed by places like the Swartland, Mossel Bay, Stellenbosch, Drakenstein and Overstrand.

“We have seen the DA lose by-elections in four out of those five municipalities between 2021 and 2026. We have seen the PA, last week, retain a ward it had won off the DA because there was another by-election in the Malmesbury area. So the DA will be greatly concerned here.

“All five of those areas the DA rules outright at present, and it will want to continue to rule these municipalities outright after the 2026 local government elections. And that and many other municipalities are now at play, and this will concern the DA greatly.”

According to Sussman, the DA has not been very successful in countering the PA’s threat in the platteland (rural areas).

He thinks the party has acknowledged that there is a problem and is “working very hard to reconnect with voters, understanding their issues and hoping the fact that it has more members, more activists and more experience fighting elections, that this will pay dividends on election day”.

“But, of course, this is a great concern,” Sussman said.

Several strategic moves

Hill-Lewis’s proposal to replace Steen­huisen with Aucamp is a strategic move to win back favour among the Afrikaner ­constituency. Although conservation groups criticised Aucamp in his post as environment minister for his closeness to the wildlife-ranching, hunting and game-breeding sector, he is affable and has close relationships with the Afrikaner and farming communities.

“For me, it was the natural, obvious choice. He’s someone who is clearly associated with the Afrikaner community,” said Sussman. “His father … was a prominent conservative Afrikaans politician from Limpopo. He’s from North West and he currently lives in the Northern Cape. That’s ticking many rural Afrikaans boxes,” said Sussman.

At the same time, moving Steenhuisen to the post of deputy minister of trade, industry and competition keeps him in a space where he can build on some of his previous success in expanding South Africa’s access to markets.

Daily Maverick’s Stephen Grootes wrote that moving Maynier to the environment portfolio brings a veteran strategist to a crucial front line. Abrahams, who has been the deputy minister of trade and industry since November 2025, after Andrew Whitfield’s firing, will move to the electricity portfolio.

For more than a decade, Bloom has been a driving force in holding the Gauteng Department of Health accountable while advocating improved healthcare services for residents, as well as better working conditions for staff. The water crisis is shaping up to be a defining election issue and Bloom could take a leading role in pointing out continuing challenges and pushing for reforms in this portfolio.

Such positioning could be important for areas such as Johannesburg, where DA ­mayoral candidate Helen Zille is canvassing black voters as well as the party’s minority stronghold with the aim of taking a majority in the city.

Cassim is set to join Minister Buti Manamela and Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube in higher education. His track record dates back to his student days, when he won the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Student Representative Council presidency for the DA. He later served in the Eastern Cape as an MPL, as the DA’s provincial chairperson and chief whip. His background in the Eastern Cape could help the party in its efforts to take control of Nelson Mandela Bay, where the PA is a threat.

Cassim highlighted that accountability would be enforced when issues arise. “I do believe that it is the role of both the minister and the deputy minister to effect consequence management. The minister does have all the authority over the department, but a deputy minister can exercise oversight in a manner that ensures that the difficult questions are asked and not plastered over and that we insist that the officials who should be held accountable are held accountable,” he said.

Daily Maverick spoke to the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Tebogo Letsie, who provided a mixed view of Gondwe’s tenure. He said there were notable instances where Gondwe demonstrated commendable leadership. In particular, her efforts to expose and address the issue of unaccredited and fraudulent institutions were both necessary and impactful and deserved recognition.

“However, there were also occasions where we held differing views. At times, her approach appeared to lean towards populism. For example, the use of departmental resources to negotiate interventions – such as the Google partnership for TVET colleges – was subsequently framed in a manner that suggested it was a party-driven initiative. This, in our view, undermined the role and integrity of the department.

“Additionally, it was concerning that, despite serving in and being remunerated by the department, she did not support the very budget from which the department operates. Furthermore, her public call for the scrapping of Setas and the NSFAS appeared to contradict the directives and authority of the President, to whom she reports. Such actions could reasonably be interpreted as undermining executive cohesion and accountability,” said Letsie.

When Daily Maverick spoke to Gondwe about the importance of the partnerships she had established, she said they were meant to ensure young people get paid while skills training continues. “This was to ensure that the kind of skills that we’re producing don’t result in students emerging from our sector and sitting at home not working, because one thing that keeps me awake at night is the rate of unemployment, especially among young people.

“I feel it’s a ticking time bomb that, if we don’t give it attention, if we don’t think outside the box in terms of how we can ensure that we see more young people being employed, then we will have a serious problem on our hands, and these are the future leaders,” said Gondwe.

Daily Maverick questioned the DA about the reason for Gondwe’s removal and was referred to Hill-Lewis’s statement, by party spokesperson Charity McCord. DM

Additional reporting by Siyabonga Goni.

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.