How Steenhuisen's withdrawal from DA leadership race impacts on the party in KZN

The DA in KwaZulu-Natal said it has accepted John Steenhuisen's withdrawal from the national leadership race 'with a heavy heart' and will now decide on someone else to put its weight behind.

The DA Federal leader on Wednesday officially pulled out of the party's leadership race at a media briefing in Durban - Steenhuisen said he had accomplished what he wanted as party leader.

Reacting to Steenhuisen's withdrawal, DA deputy provincial leader Sithembiso Ngema said the party had accepted his withdrawal from the race, despite backing him to lead the party for a third term. Ngema said it was not a secret that KZN would have backed Steenhuisen.

“We accept the withdrawal and we understand that he felt he must announce it before the nominations start so that we look for another candidate. Since he is no longer available, we are going to wait for the nomination window to be opened and then we will pronounce who the province will be supporting,” said Ngema.

Steenhuisen on Wednesday listed his accomplishments as party leader, saying he had led the party from 16% in elections to 30%, describing this as his one of the biggest achievements. Another achievement , he said was in preventing the Umkhonto weSizwe party (MKP) and EFF coalition from taking over.

However, he warned the party that the prospects of the ‘doomsday coalition’ (MKP and EFF) taking over the country has not disappeared.

“In April 2023, following my re-election as Federal leader, with a decisive mandate of 83% from Federal Congress delegates, I announced that the DA was ready to take this moonshot (pact). We were going to shed our image as a party that only shouted at others from the comfort of the sidelines, and mature into a party that gets stuck in to fix the country we all love.

“At the time, I also warned that if the DA was unable to mature and rise to the demands of a coalition country, it would be responsible for selling South Africa out to the populist doomsday coalition. A little over a year later, on the 3rd of July 2024, the DA achieved our moonshot,” said Steenhuisen.

He said another reason he would no seek reelection was his role as Minister of Agriculture and the need to focus all his energies on fighting the devastating Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) in the country.

Steenhuisen said he would not be able to fight the disease while running around the country, campaigning for the party to win the local government election.

“For the rest of this term of office, I will focus all my time and energy as Minister of Agriculture on defeating the most devastating FMD outbreak the country has ever seen, and to pursue mass vaccination to ensure that this is the last mass outbreak of FMD our country ever sees. After leading the DA into the GNU, my next chapter must be to eradicate this devastating disease from our shores once and for all. That is not a part-time job,” said Steenhuisen.

He said that it would not be fair to the farmers of South Africa to split his time between battling the worst FMD outbreak on one hand, while also running an internal campaign for the next three months, and then leading a local government election campaign.

The party will hold its elective congress in April.

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