Time to Fire John Steenhuisen as Minister of Agriculture

The President, his government, and the Democratic Alliance (DA) have one thing in common: their credibility will suffer with each day that John Steenhuisen remains in office. If they were at all serious they’d fire him within the month.

Where to start? The ineptitude is a good place. John Steenhuisen’s very slow reaction to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) pandemic vastly exacerbated the crisis. He might have inherited the origins of the crisis from his predecessors, but as late as October of last year, there was still time, if the correct advice had been adhered to, to act in a manner that would have avoided the epidemic which has now spread across the country. As early as June of 2025 the minister had been firmly told exactly what to do and exactly would occur if he did not but he ignored that advice. In whatever enquiries may later follow this may all come out.

If Mr Ramaphosa is serious about holding Cabinet ministers responsible for failure, there can be none in the GNU era who has failed quite as spectacularly as Steenhuisen. Not acting sends a message that the President is weak and that his government, despite their repeated protestations of turning over a new leaf and taking reform seriously, is not serious. Worse, for Ramaphosa personally and his party, it may send a message that he is scared of the DA. Certainly, the buffoonery at the agriculture ministry detracts from the actually quite substantive progress that South Africa has made under the GNU on everything from the credit ratings upgrade to newly proposed labour reforms and the much-improved growth outlook.

For the DA, the urgency is as great. It has acted to deny Steenhuisen another go at the party leadership, but in the public mind, he continues to represent the DA in the government. In fact, he is seen as the DA’s top man. The damage to the credibility of that party must be immense, more so for the fact that Steenhuisen has taken to insulting and belittling South African farmers. The chatter around this is shocking. Time and again he loses his composure when challenged and then indulges in the most petty and unprofessional behaviour. If he were a toddler, in another age, such behaviour would have resulted in a hiding and being sent to his room. At farmer meetings, the anger towards him is palpable. Some of his statements made at those meetings, which have been recorded for the record, are those of a person very removed from reality.

Take, for example, his suggestion that among the reasons why farmers should not be allowed to procure vaccines is that they might turn them into bio-weapons. Does he believe that? If he does, what does that tell you about how he thinks about the farmers he is supposed to serve? Terrorists? If he does not believe it, then why did he say it other than to insult farmers for questioning his approach? That kind of rhetoric is not only irresponsible; it shows a profound lack of understanding and respect for the very individuals he’s supposed to represent. There is not another minster who behaves in anything close to that fashion towards the industry he is supposed to serve.

But the behaviour continues. Just a week ago, he took to task, on social media, in the most offensive and personal manner, a prominent farming union leader who had questioned the pricing of the state-procured vaccine. Among other things, he called this man a “mischief maker” peddling “disinformation” and a “fraudster”!

Calling DA HQ. Is that how it is done now? If a member of the public asks for information on the pricing of a government-procured good or service, your party in government accuses that person of fraud? It’s extraordinary. The worst of the state capture thugs did not go as far.

It is so unfair to the civil service, many of whom have worked very hard to help farmers despite their minister. The DA must show that it cares about those people above running cover for the minister – otherwise how will the broader service trust the DA in government to work with it?

Then there is the wrongheadedness of it all. Steenhuisen has insisted that the state lead the FMD response. That is troubling in a country where the drift of policy reform needs to be towards drafting in more of the private sector. Worse is that Steenhuisen has insisted that the state can do a much better job than the private sector and procure vaccines much more cheaply. That’s very unlikely, as there is not much that governments do better than the private sector – and procurement is often at the top of that list. Certainly, it runs right against the grain of most DA policy – creating confusion on what the party stands for.

He also speaks all the time about something he calls “the national herd”. That is straight out of the Soviet Union or North Korea or Maoist China. There is no "national herd" any more than there is the "national vehicle fleet", "national housing supply", or "national golf courses". The language implies state ownership, rounding out the state-centric emphasis of Steenhuisen’s broader approach to policy. Perhaps some of the last die-hard communists in South Africa think like this, but you would be hard-pressed to find anything recent. So how does the DA’s most senior representative in government?

Along similar lines, Steenhuisen has sought to deflect questions of vaccine pricing by announcing that farmers will receive vaccines for free. That’s problematic too, and a poor precedent. Firstly, it is not free. Taxpayers foot the bill, including farmers. But more importantly, farmers are private business owners, and they should run those businesses for their own accounts. If the state has caused them to suffer a loss, then by all means, sue it for damages that might include the cost of having to procure and administer vaccines. Agricultural unions should consider such action. But it is very dangerous to accept “free” help from the government, especially when the government has denied you the opportunity to help yourself. It may not be long before the government is back to talk about how to share that "national herd" the government was so kind to help you vaccinate.