John Steenhuisen, who is expected to become the new deputy minister of trade, industry and competition after the DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis nominated him for this position, will see his salary reduced by approximately R500 000 should the president appoint him.

While some politicians would not accept the demotion, DA sources told Die Papier that Hill-Lewis would not nominate Steenhuisen in an official DA letter if he had not already agreed in principle. Steenhuisen himself could not yet be reached for comment.

Hill-Lewis shuffled a number of DA cabinet posts this week. Willie Aucamp has been nominated for the agriculture minister position, and the Western Cape MEC for education, David Maynier, will succeed Aucamp as minister of environmental affairs. There were also several moves among deputy ministers, with three now losing their executive positions.

According to Hill-Lewis’s statement, Steenhuisen will continue the work he was already doing at agriculture – unlocking new overseas markets for South Africa’s agricultural exports – at the department of trade, industry and competition (DTIC).

The pressure to remove Steenhuisen as agriculture minister comes after months of disagreement between him and farmers in the private sector over his department’s handling of foot-and-mouth disease.

The final nail in the proverbial coffin was Jana le Roux, his chief of staff, and her leaked email in which she dismissed FMD Response SA’s pleas to the department as “amusing”. Instead of sending this email to colleagues, she accidentally sent it back to FMD Response SA.

Steenhuisen will not be the first minister to accept a demotion. Two other examples include David Mahlobo, deputy minister of water and sanitation, who was previously minister of state security and minister of energy. The second is Sihle Zikalala, currently deputy in the public works department, who was previously minister of the same department.

‘John must destabilise the ANC’

Prof. William Gumede, political analyst, suspects there is a deeper “strategy” behind Steenhuisen’s move to the DTIC, which may also partly explain why he experienced the demotion.

“It could be that they’re placing him there to destabilise [Parks] Tau (minister of trade, industry and competition) and his core group, who drive the black economic empowerment (BEE) policy. What is one of the biggest battles currently in the country? It’s BEE.”

The DA is outspoken against BEE. Gumede currently stands on the receiving end of fierce criticism due to his position on BEE in its current form and his calls to drastically reform the policy.

“It [Steenhuisen’s move] could possibly be a brilliant strategy to just neutralise the whole group,” says Gumede.

He explains the importance of the DTIC: “It’s a powerful institution, because many of the powerful development financing institutions such as the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) report to you. It’s not just an ordinary department. It’s suddenly where all the economic state assets sit.”

According to Gumede, the ANC planned it this way to ensure under the government of national unity that they have control over these assets.

“Of the two major groups of state-controlled entities – the infrastructure assets like Eskom and Transnet and the development financiers – the money currently comes from the development financiers.”

“And if you now head the DTIC, you’re a powerful individual,” Gumede emphasises.

It appears Gumede may be right. The ANC on Thursday in a statement about Hill-Lewis’s proposed cabinet shuffles criticised the DA over its BEE opposition. The party also showed its discomfort with the DA in DTIC circles.

“It is equally concerning that the DA appears comfortable using strategic economic portfolios as instruments for internal party faction fights. The DTIC is not just another government department to be exploited as a dumping ground for their underperformers or faction opponents.

“The DTIC sits at the centre of industrialisation, localisation, investment promotion, economic transformation, job creation and inclusive growth. South Africans expect this portfolio to be approached with the seriousness it deserves and not as a convenient destination for internal political redeployments.”

The shuffles

Besides Steenhuisen, Aucamp and Maynier, there were also moves among deputy ministers.

Steenhuisen replaces Alexandra Abrahams as deputy minister of trade, industry and competition. Samantha Graham-Maré, deputy minister of electricity and energy, is now likely losing her cabinet position because she must make way for Abrahams.

Yusuf Cassim, DA MPL in the Eastern Cape, has been nominated as deputy minister of higher education and training in Dr Mimmy Gondwe’s place.

Jack Bloom, long-time DA representative in the Gauteng legislature, becomes deputy minister of water and sanitation in Sello Seitlholo’s place.

Why the reshuffling?

Gumede says one of the reasons is so that Hill-Lewis, who does not serve in cabinet, has allies in executive circles who can be his eyes and ears.

Political analyst Prof. Erwin Schwella, notes that Hill-Lewis is acting in the interest of the DA’s support base.

“But also with the approach that it is the DA’s principled position that performance is rewarded, and poor performance or underperformance is not punished, but also not really rewarded.”

According to another political analyst Dirk Kotzé, the reshuffles are not a clean-up process, but the result of an internal performance review and an evaluation of officials’ visibility.

“Whether they are seen to be making an impact, that they are contributing to achieving what the DA promised in 2024 (at the previous general election) – that they are busy contributing to the achievement of those goals.”

He says the moves of Maynier, Bloom and Cassim, who are being sent from provinces to national level, shows him “the DA is prepared to go over the heads of existing parliamentarians to bring people from the provinces to national level”.

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“It shows how important the provinces and provincial governments are for the DA at all levels. It confirms to a large extent their philosophy that they are a federal party that builds from the bottom up.”

According to Kotzé, Hill-Lewis’s message is threefold: “First is that the DA is prepared to look at its own members and look at their performance and whether it is up to standard. Secondly, if it is not up to standard, to respond by either removing people from positions or moving them to positions for which they are hopefully more suited. Thirdly, it now poses a challenge to all other political parties to see if they are prepared to do the same.”

The Sunday Times reports Ramaphosa, president of the ANC, allegedly convened a top-seven meeting on Wednesday to discuss cabinet shuffles in his own ranks.

Ramaphosa must, among others, replace the ousted minister of social development, Sisisi Tolashe. He may still announce these changes today, or wait until next week and announce them together with Hill-Lewis’s proposed changes.

• Read more about Willie Aucamp and the other moves in the DA in Die Papier, which is now on the shelves. Home delivery is also available by emailing diepapierintekening@onthedot.co.za or calling 087 353 2191. An electronic newspaper can also be purchased at diepapier.co.za or at Magzter.

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