John Steenhuisen has not officially said anything yet, but inside the Democratic Alliance, the expectation is clear. He is not likely to seek re election as leader. He is expected to speak publicly in Durban soon, and until then, the silence has only fuelled speculation about what comes next for the party.
To understand why this moment matters, you have to go back to when Steenhuisen took over. He did not inherit a stable, growing opposition. He stepped into a party that was visibly falling apart. Senior figures were resigning, factions were fighting in public, and the DA was losing both direction and confidence. His first priority was not to win new voters. It was to stop the collapse.
That decision shaped everything that followed. Steenhuisen chose stability over expansion. He focused on holding the party together and protecting its traditional base, even if that meant limiting its ability to grow. The DA stopped bleeding support, but it also struggled to break through its electoral ceiling.
Then came the moment that changed the party’s trajectory entirely. In 2024, Steenhuisen led the DA into the Government of National Unity. For the first time, the party moved from opposing the ANC to governing alongside it. For supporters, it was pragmatic and mature. For critics, it blurred the DA’s identity and raised uncomfortable questions about what the party stood for.
Once in government, the scrutiny intensified. As Minister of Agriculture, Steenhuisen faced real world tests, including foot and mouth disease outbreaks that drew complaints from farmers and industry bodies about slow responses and poor coordination. The criticism was no longer ideological. It was about performance.
Inside the DA, tensions deepened. Decision making became more centralised, dissent became harder to manage, and disagreements increasingly spilled into public view. The credit card controversy, even though internal processes cleared him, damaged the party’s clean governance image and weakened internal trust. When senior figures began accusing Steenhuisen of being too close to the ANC, it confirmed what many already suspected. The leadership had fractured.
If Steenhuisen does step aside, it will not be because of one scandal or one misstep. It will be because of accumulation. The weight of governing, internal conflict, and the cost of holding together a party navigating its most complex phase yet.
The DA is now standing on the edge of a transition. And whatever comes next, Steenhuisen’s time at the helm will be remembered as one of the most consequential and contested chapters in the party’s history.
