John Steenhuisen, the leader of the South African opposition, is confident in his ability to eventually assume the presidency, even in the face of challenges such as the sensitive matter of race and the African National Congress’s three-decade-long hold on power.
For decades he has argued that his party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is the key to South Africa’s progress.
The center-right movement emerged from the liberal white benches of the old apartheid parliament, positing itself as a liberal alternative to the ANC.
Steenhuisen became a member of the DA in the 1990s as a young activist at the age of around 19.
“I decided to go into politics because of my frustration with the status quo in our country, where South Africa’s immense potential was being squandered at the hands of an inept government,” he said in a 2020 interview.
Steenhuisen, a young individual, registered for a program in politics and law at the university, however, he did not complete his studies. This became a subject of ridicule by social media users and fellow politicians.
In a defiant speech to parliament, Mr Steenhuisen, then chief whip of the DA, said “financial and work pressures” had forced him to drop out.
“I’m not ashamed of this because I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a public representative,” he said.
Mr. Steenhuisen undoubtedly displayed great ambition as an aspiring politician. At the age of 22, he successfully secured a councilor position in his hometown of Durban, making him one of the youngest individuals to have ever assumed this role.
From there, the future leader scaled the ranks of regional politics – that is until 2010, when he was forced to resign as the DA’s leader for the KwaZulu-Natal region after it emerged that he was having an affair.
In 2011, Mr Steenhuisen was elected to the national parliament shortly after his resignation. Following three years, he assumed the position of the DA’s chief whip.
At this point, the party was preparing to make a major change. The DA has long been perceived as a party that promotes the interests of white, Asian, and colored (as people of mixed race are known in South Africa) people, in a country where they make up just 7%, 3%, and 8% of the population respectively.
So, partly in an attempt to diversify its appeal, the DA appointed its first black leader.
The charismatic Mmusi Maimane was viewed as the party’s best shot at the presidency, but he quit just four years later.
As the DA reeled from his exit, Mr Maimane said the party was the wrong “vehicle” for uniting a South Africa that remains divided along racial lines 30 years after the end of white-minority rule.
Mr Steenhuisen was appointed as interim leader the following month – but what should have been an unquestionable triumph for this dedicated DA member was not without contention.
Social media users pointed out that the DA leadership was now all white, while DA officials who had quit alongside Mr Maimane warned the party was lurching back to the right.
When asked last year whether the DA’s image as a “fundamentally white party” was a structural issue, Steenhuisen told the BBC: “People are looking beyond race towards competence, [the] ability to get things done and being able to deliver – that’s the game in town and that’s going to be the game in the next election.”
He opposes race quotas in the workplace – introduced by the ANC in a bid to close South Africa’s racial economic gap – calling them “crude” and unsuccessful.
On Steenhuisen’s approach to racial issues, South African political analyst Richard Calland stated: “He comes across as someone privileged, but unconscious, unaware of the context, unaware of the lived reality for most South Africans.”
Some time ago, he was asked by the Mail & Guardian if he believed South Africa was “ready” for a white president, Mr. Steenhuisen countered: “Was America ready for Barack Obama? Was the UK ready for Rishi Sunak? They both come from minority groupings in their country and I think both have performed admirably.”
What You Should Know About John Steenhuisen
- John Henry Steenhuisen is a South African politician who has served as the twentieth leader of the Opposition since October 2019 and has been the leader of the Democratic Alliance since November 2020, having served as the interim leader for one year from November 2019. He was chief whip of the official opposition from May 2014 until October 2019.
- He was born in Durban and matriculated from Northwood Boys’ High School, an English-medium high school in Durban in 1993. He does not have a university degree. He once told Parliament that he had enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in politics and law at the University of South Africa in 1994, but he could not finish the course due to work and financial circumstances.
- Steenhuisen joined the Democratic Party and was elected to the Durban City Council in 1999 as the councilor for Durban North. In 2000, the Democratic Alliance was formed, and he was elected as a councilor of the newly formed eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in that year’s municipal election. He was appointed as the DA’s caucus leader in 2006.
- In April 2022, John Steenhuisen went on a six-day ‘fact-finding’ trip to Ukraine. His trip has been criticized, by many who said that he should focus on local South African issues. In response, Steenhuisen stated that ‘The criticism for visiting Ukraine is not fair and is immature’.[80] After initially declining to reveal the trip’s funders, Steenhuisen later revealed that the trip was funded by the Brenthurst Foundation. Following the trip, Steenhuisen held a brief press conference, which did not allow for questions from the press.
- He currently resides in Umhlanga, (an upmarket coastal town in KwaZulu Natal) and is a supporter of the Sharks rugby union team and the AmaZulu F.C. soccer club. Steenhuisen was married for 10 years to Julie Steenhuisen (née Wright), a fellow Durban native. They were divorced in October 2010 amid Steenhuisen’s affair with Terry Beaumont, the wife of the DA’s former KwaZulu-Natal director Michael Beaumont. Steenhuisen has two daughters from his first marriage. He is now married to Terry, and they have a daughter together.
