"Mission Accomplished" Says Steenhuisen as He Bids Farewell

John Steenhuisen will not contest the next Democratic Alliance (DA) leadership election at the party’s next Federal Congress, due to be held in April.

He made this announcement yesterday in his hometown of Durban, surrounded by family, allies, and long-time supporters.

Steenhuisen framed his departure as leader as a moment of closure rather than retreat. He told the audience that he had reached a point of completion, saying he had realised “it is mission accomplished for me” and that he had “delivered everything that I promised my party when I was first elected as federal leader back in 2019”.

Steenhuisen argued that his tenure would be remembered for one defining achievement only, taking the DA into national government for the first time. “In the long story of the DA and its predecessors, dating back at least to 1959, there is only one leadership era that will ever be remembered for marshalling our party across the Rubicon, into national government,” he said. “Only one. And it is this one.”

Steenhuisen said the loss of the electoral majority of the African National Congress (ANC) in 2024, and the emergence of Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK) created an existential moment for the country. “[This] made our mission even more urgent, the DA successfully negotiated the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) with President Cyril Ramaphosa,” he said.

Throughout the address, Steenhuisen defended the DA’s shift from opposition politics to coalition governance as both necessary and overdue and dismissed the comfort of permanent opposition.

He also sought to anchor recent economic improvements to the GNU and the DA’s role within it. “The GNU has more than doubled economic growth during its first calendar year in office,” he said, and pointed to the defeat of a proposed VAT increase, a credit rating upgrade, removal from the Financial Actions Task Force Grey List and falling unemployment as evidence that “South Africa’s economy is on the up, after more than a decade of rapid decline”.

His decision not to seek a third term as leader was presented as a matter of responsibility rather than ambition. Steenhuisen said his full attention was now required as Minister of Agriculture to confront “the most devastating foot-and-mouth disease outbreak our country has ever seen”, adding that it would “not [be] fair to the incredible farmers of South Africa” to divide his time between crisis management and an internal leadership contest.

Steenhuisen was careful to define the condition of the party he leaves behind. He said the DA had moved from internal polling of 16% to “consistently polling at 30%”, placing it “within striking distance of becoming the biggest political party in South Africa”. His successor, he argued, would inherit “a fundamentally healthier party than the one I inherited”.

The address closed on a note of deliberate finality. “For the true test of whether you love a thing, is the ability to let it go when the time is right,” he said. “I have loved leading the DA, which is why today I let it go with a smile on my face, and triumphant peace in my heart.”