John Steenhuisen hasn’t completely fallen from political grace, although his demotion from minister of agriculture to deputy minister of trade, industry and competition must be at least humbling – and perhaps give him pause for thought to assess where he wants to go in future.
Many in the DA are in agreement – confidentially, because even in that supposedly democratic organisation, you never really know who’s listening – that Steenhuisen has been overtaken by an arrogance quite at odds with the humble, hard-working guy from Durbs he used to be.
Not only was he arrogant, he also brought the party into disrepute with his unseemly clash with former deputy minister Dion George and the added shambles of his own personal financial affairs.
Almost the antithesis of the picture the DA needs to present to potential voters.
And, therein lies the rub: Steenhuisen was seen as a potential liability in upcoming elections.
As minister of agriculture, he was supposed to have won over the conservative white farmers to the DA – but he did almost the opposite with his incompetent handling of the foot-and-mouth disease crisis and his seeming disdain for organised agriculture.
That poor performance gave the DA’s right-wing opponents the perfect platform from which to launch an anti-Steenhuisen campaign, in which he was seen as a metaphor for everything wrong with the DA… from it being out of touch to it allegedly helping push through the ANC’s “socialist” economic and social reforms.
The latter, of course, is hyped-up nonsense, but there is no doubt that conservatives have been drifting over to the Freedom Front Plus from DA ranks for some time.
And, the blue party could get a nasty surprise in the looming local government polls.
Steenhuisen, though, needs to reflect. He is still a man, we believe, with much to offer our country.
