{"id":97088,"date":"2026-04-11T14:40:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact"},"modified":"2026-04-11T14:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:50:19","slug":"steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact","title":{"rendered":"Steenhuisen Declares Mission Accomplished on Pact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The Democratic Alliance (DA)\u2019s outgoing leader, John Steenhuisen, has declared mission accomplished on his \u201cmoonshot pact\u201d to unseat the African National Congress (ANC) from an outright majority in government.<\/p>\n<p>Steenhuisen delivered his final speech as the blue party\u2019s leader for more than six years as more than 2,000 delegates gather at its federal congress in Midrand to elect his replacement.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s told the gathering it\u2019s been the greatest honour of his life to lead the party from the opposition benches in Parliament into a coalition government.<\/p>\n<p>Steenhuisen said he\u2019s handing over the reins of a party that is now stronger and healthier than when he first stepped in as interim leader in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the party\u2019s evolution that started with the Progressive Party in 1959, Steenhuisen has told supporters that this is the generation that is starting to change history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks to our moonshot mission, South Africa has taken a major step forward to realising the vision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After almost two years in government, Steenhuisen has cited work done in the party\u2019s ministerial portfolios as evidence that it has been able to successfully transition from an opposition to a co-governing party in national government, and not only at local level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that a country as diverse as South Africa now has a multi-party coalition governing, and it is increasingly anchored in our liberal reform agenda, is an astonishing national achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Steenhuisen is set to be succeeded by popular frontrunner Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who is up against the Sedibeng Municipality\u2019s Sibusiso Dyonase.<\/p>\n<p>Steenhuisen said he will now be focussing all his energy on eradicating foot-and-mouth disease in his portfolio as agriculture minister and return to the party\u2019s trenches to grow it to become the country\u2019s largest ahead of the 2029 elections.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA)\u2019s outgoing leader, John Steenhuisen, has declared mission accomplished on his \u201cmoonshot pact\u201d to unseat the African National Congress (ANC) from an outright majority in government. Steenhuisen delivered his final speech as the blue party\u2019s leader for more than six years as more than 2,000 delegates gather at its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":97087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-97088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"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>Steenhuisen Declares Mission Accomplished on Pact - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Democratic Alliance (DA)\u2019s outgoing leader, John Steenhuisen, has declared mission accomplished on his \u201cmoonshot pac ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steenhuisen Declares Mission Accomplished on Pact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Democratic Alliance (DA)\u2019s outgoing leader, John Steenhuisen, has declared mission accomplished on his \u201cmoonshot pac ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-11T14:40:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-11T14:50:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775906275.442792.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Steenhuisen Declares Mission Accomplished on Pact\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-11T14:40:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-11T14:50:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact\"},\"wordCount\":317,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775906275.442792.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/steenhuisen-declares-mission-accomplished-on-pact\",\"name\":\"Steenhuisen Declares Mission Accomplished on Pact - 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