{"id":4442,"date":"2026-02-07T02:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/uncertainty-over-the-future-of-south-africas-ruling-coalition"},"modified":"2026-02-07T03:19:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:19:50","slug":"uncertainty-over-the-future-of-south-africas-ruling-coalition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/uncertainty-over-the-future-of-south-africas-ruling-coalition","title":{"rendered":"Uncertainty over the Future of South Africa\u2019S Ruling Coalition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>John Steenhuisen, leader of South Africa\u2019s Democratic Alliance, announced that he will not run for re-election as party leader in April, raising fresh uncertainty about the country\u2019s governing coalition.<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Alliance is the second-largest party after the African National Congress (ANC) in a coalition formed in June 2024, after the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of white minority rule in 1994.<\/p>\n<p>Steenhuisen has led the business-friendly Democratic Alliance since 2019 and also serves as the current Minister of Agriculture. He said he will now focus on that role as the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease worsens in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Political analyst Ongama Mtimka said that Steenhuisen\u2019s dual role as party leader and a minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s government played an important part in rallying the Democratic Alliance toward cooperation with its coalition partners.<\/p>\n<p>He added that with a new leader, voices within the Democratic Alliance may be heard calling to renegotiate some terms of the coalition agreement or withdraw from it.<\/p>\n<p>Although the Democratic Alliance has clashed with the ANC on a number of issues, it is generally unlikely to pull out of the coalition, which gave it a role in the national government for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Political analysts say Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, also a senior figure in the Democratic Alliance, is likely to run for the party leadership in April and succeed Steenhuisen.<\/p>\n<p>Steenhuisen has faced allegations that he used a party-issued credit card for personal expenses, although an internal Democratic Alliance investigation found no evidence that he misappropriated funds.<\/p>\n<p>He told a press conference: \u201cI will devote all my time and effort, for the remainder of my term as Minister of Agriculture, to ending the most serious foot-and-mouth disease outbreak our country has ever seen.\u201d The Democratic Alliance holds about 22% of the seats in South Africa\u2019s National Assembly, while the ANC holds 41%.<\/p>\n<p>Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, said: \u201cFocusing more on foot-and-mouth disease is the right approach,\u201d adding that \u201cmany producers will face a financial catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. John Steenhuisen, leader of South Africa\u2019s Democratic Alliance, announced that he will not run for re-election as party leader in April, raising fresh uncertainty about the country\u2019s governing coalition. The Democratic Alliance is the second-largest party after the African National Congress (ANC) in a coalition formed in June 2024, after the ANC lost its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-4442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policy","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Uncertainty over the Future of South Africa\u2019S Ruling Coalition - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. 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