In a statement released today, the ANC said it “noted the perturbing damning public allegations made by former DA leader John Steenhuisen regarding attempts to capture the state by Tony Leon, in cahoots with former DA CEO Paul Boughey, through their PR Company Resolve Communications”.

The party said Steenhuisen had “painted a picture of how they undertook lobbying activities on behalf of private interests, including matters relating to the government’s response to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak” and that “Steenhuisen further alleged that DA ministers were approached in connection with these lobbying efforts and suggested that tensions arising from these engagements contributed to the DA’s call for him to be removed from the Cabinet”.

The ANC said, “These allegations raise important questions about ethical governance, accountability, and the assault on the integrity of democratic institutions. These are matters that deserve to be addressed openly and transparently in the interests of maintaining public confidence in government. […] For too long, the Democratic Alliance has sought to frame corruption as a phenomenon primarily associated with black-led governments and institutions while projecting administrations under its control as inherently more ethical and accountable. This selective political narrative has contributed to the harmful perception that corruption is linked to race rather than to individual criminal conduct and systemic governance failures. Recent governance developments demonstrate that procurement irregularities, ethical lapses and governance weaknesses are not determined by race, geography or political affiliation, but are risks confronting every administration.”

In a statement Resolve Communications, the firm associated with Leon, made plain that lobbying is a legitimate political practice and that his firm had done nothing unethical.

DA insiders who spoke to The Common Sense said that this situation arose as Steenhuisen wanted to punish the DA and his former colleagues for, firstly, recalling him as party leader and then seeking to remove him as agriculture minister. Steenhuisen has performed very poorly in the latter role.

Last week a rumour ran around financial markets that the DA might look to pull out of the unity government. That is not an imminent risk, but the new DA leadership is more conditional about its role in the government than was the case for the Steenhuisen leadership, while the ANC under President Cyril Ramaphosa is open to proceeding as a minority government if the DA is removed or exits the GNU.

In a note over the weekend, advisory firm Frans Cronje Private Clients assigned a 35% probability to the unity government breaking up within weeks. Such a breakup would occur if the ANC continued to seek to sabotage the DA in the government, including dragging its feet over a Cabinet reshuffle that has been proposed by DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis. Messing with Hill-Lewis over the reshuffle is seen in ANC ranks as an important test of whether the new DA leader has the mettle to succeed in national government.

In that equation the ANC now regards Steenhuisen as a trump card of sorts. The longer he is retained in the government, the more damage will be wrought to the DA’s standing in both the government and the broader public mind and Steenhuisen might easily be further turned to launch attacks against his party.