Calls for racial diversity could cost Steenhuisen his job as MP
● DA chief whip John Steenhuisen risks losing his job should party provincial leaders be allowed to sit on the panels that select candidate MPs.
DA insiders said Steenhuisen feared he would not make the list because KwaZuluNatal leader Zwakele Mncwango is expected to push for a more racially diverse group of MPs his province sends to parliament.
Some 70% of the DA MPs from the province are white. What will also count against Steenhuisen is that his relationship with Mncwango is said to be strained.
DA sources said Steenhuisen’s detractors would likely use his alleged failure to keep up with the party’s monthly R2,000 tithe payments to motivate for excluding him.
DA provincial leaders, including Mncwango, are demanding to serve as fulltime members on party panels to select new public representatives, and Steenhuisen is part of a group of leaders opposed to the move, saying this has traditionally been the domain of the national leaders.
Mncwango said a date for the sitting of the selection panels had not yet been set, pending a decision on whether provincial leaders would be allowed to be part of the panels.
Party leaders who asked not to be named said Steenhuisen had considered transferring his DA membership from KwaZulu-Natal to Western Cape to keep his job.
“What I know is that he wanted to apply for parliament through the Western Cape DA list and not through KwaZulu-Natal,” said a DA leader in the Western Cape. “He wants to face the Western Cape selection panel.
“In the KwaZulu-Natal selection panel, he might find himself in trouble because of his track record in payments. He is also seen as a person who doesn’t work [on the ground] for the party that side.”
The tithe issue is said to be one of the main reasons Steenhuisen withdrew from a leadership race to challenge federal council chairperson James Selfe at the party’s congress in April.
“He knows he will not get clearance of good standing from his province because of his payment records. He has been served with letters of demand for him to pay,” said the DA leader.
Approached to comment on Friday, Steenhuisen reacted: “I gave you guys the copies of my statements and bank accounts and everything. “Why is this a story again?”
He denied he had any plans to migrate his DA membership from KwaZulu-Natal to the Western Cape and said he had applied for an MP post in KwaZulu-Natal.
“I will live with the outcome [of the KwaZulu-Natal selection panel], whatever it may be,” said Steenhuisen.
There had not been a falling out between himself and Mncwango, but that did not mean he was not allowed to challenge Mncwango’s views as a leader, he said. “We are a party that encourages robust debate. We don’t have a command culture … where once a leader says something, then everybody must bow down.”
Sources also said DA leader Mmusi Maimane and Selfe were aware of Steenhuisen’s payment default but had not acted on the matter yet.
Maimane, as party leader, is allowed to choose “competent, high-profile South Africans” to represent the party in parliament. However, it is unclear if the discretion that Maimane holds as party leader may apply to Steenhuisen.
Maimane and Selfe could not be reached at the time of going to print.
Mncwango said Steenhuisen’s tardy payment of his tithe was a party matter. “This is an internal matter between a public representative and the party. I’m not at liberty to disclose confidential information.”
He denied he intended to use the DA selection processes to oust Steenhuisen. “I have never discussed with him or anyone anything about the selection panel process. I don’t know where that comes from,” Mncwango said.
Sources said Steenhuisen was worried that Mncwango was targeting him whenever he spoke of diversifying the KwaZulu-Natal list of candidates to parliament.
Another leader said: “Currently, KwaZuluNatal sends 10 representatives to parliament, but John is worried that since seven are white, two Indian and only one is black, he may not make the cut.”