When John Steenhuisen assumed leadership, the DA was declared politically terminal by analysts who have long confused ANC dominance with democratic inevitability.
The assumption was simple: a party that rejects racial nationalism, resists populism and insists on constitutional limits cannot survive in SA’s political climate.
That assumption underestimated voters and misunderstood leadership.
While the ANC doubled down on liberation-era entitlement and the EFF perfected politics as performance art, Steenhuisen led the DA in the opposite direction: toward institutional stability, policy seriousness and delivery-led governance.
This was not always fashionable, but it was deliberate.
Under his leadership, the DA won its first municipality in KwaZulu-Natal (Umngeni), puncturing the myth that voters were permanently locked into historical loyalties.
Unlike the ANC, which treats support as a birthright, or the EFF, which trades in permanent agitation, the DA asked voters to judge it on outcomes.
More significantly, Steenhuisen helped lead the DA into SA’s first genuine multiparty government at national level.
This was an ideological break with the ANC’s obsession with dominance and the EFF’s politics of destruction.
Where the ANC clings to control even as institutions decay, and the EFF seeks collapse as a pathway to relevance, the DA chose co-operation anchored in the constitution.
This distinction matters.
The ANC governs as though accountability is optional and failure has no consequences.
The EFF thrives on anger without responsibility, promising economic miracles without governing credibility.
The DA, by contrast, has positioned itself as a party that governs where it can, co-governs where necessary, and accepts limits on power as a democratic virtue rather than a weakness.
Steenhuisen announced that he would not avail himself for re-election at the upcoming federal congress.
He leaves behind a party that co-governs a country that is firmly on the up.
It’s now up to the next generation of leadership to ensure that the DA continues to do so with ever-growing confidence.
Having stepped aside from party leadership, he has chosen to concentrate fully on his ministerial portfolio, particularly the urgent fight against foot-and-mouth disease devastating SA’s livestock sector.
While the ANC remains paralysed by internal factional battles and the EFF chases headlines, this is leadership rooted in problem-solving and economic protection.
Steenhuisen does not leave behind a perfect party, no such thing exists.
But he leaves behind a DA with an ideological spine: committed to non-racialism in a racialised political economy, to constitutionalism in an age of populist shortcuts, and to governance in a system fatigued by failure.
The question now is not whether the DA can survive without him.
It is whether SA will choose leaders who build institutions or those who burn them for applause.
Thank you, John for all your hardworking and we promise to take the baton forward.
- Thulani Dasa, DA activist, Khayelitsha
