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DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis’ request to President Cyril Ramaphosa to make changes to the DA executives in cabinet has ignited talks of a broader reshuffle.Ramaphosa is said to be considering a number of changes to his executive, that he has been mulling over time. These changes could be made as early as this week.The Sunday Times understands that Ramaphosa, in his capacity as ANC president, called a last-minute meeting of the party’s Top Seven officials on Wednesday to discuss names and positions the ANC would want him to change.It is believed that the meeting focused on who should replace axed minister of social development Sisisi Tolashe, who was marched out of her office last month following a barrage of scandals.According to sources, the ANC Women’s League proposed its deputy secretary-general and former communications minister Dina Pule for minister of social development, laying claim to a portfolio that has previously been led by its presidents.Other names that were considered were those of deputy sports minister Peace Mabe and Pemmy Majodina, the water and sanitation minister.It is not clear if Ramaphosa will announce Tolashe’s replacement this week, or if he will wait for next week to also include the changes proposed by Hill-Lewis.“The idea was to make an announcement on Sisisi’s [Tolashe] position now and this one of the DA can be made next week or sometime soon. But maybe they will decide to just wait and do all of them at the same time,” said a senior government insider.“[ANC] Women’s League wants their DSG Dina Pule, that’s the name they have suggested so far, but we don’t know if the officials will agree ... because others want Peace Mabe. Some in the Eastern Cape have raised the name of Pemmy Majodina.”On Pule’s recommendation for cabinet, another ANC NEC member said: “She is the only one of the officials who they can recommend. She is in parliament already. We don’t know if the president will agree with their recommendation.”Meanwhile well-placed DA figures said the party could no longer defend retaining agriculture minister John Steenhuisen in his position, given that the farming community is unhappy with his handling of the foot and mouth disease outbreak.They also indicated that last week’s controversial email by his chief of staff, Jana le Roux, who threatened to “f**k up” agricultural stakeholders in court, compounded the case for Steenhuisen’s exit.“That email last week of taking the farmers to the cleaners also became burdensome.”The Sunday Times also understands that Hill-Lewis’ rejig of the DA component of the GNU has long been in the making, as he has been holding one-on-one sessions with DA ministers and deputy ministers to review their performance following his election in April.“He has been undertaking a review process, to see if all of them were aligned with party policy and to make sure that they were performing. And he obviously made his decisions based on that.”It’s been a liability for us and he needed to do what he needed to do and ultimately leaders need to make difficult decisions.— DA insiderBut they indicated that in as much as the party leader held the prerogative on these, they never anticipated that Hill-Lewis would demote his friend.It’s also understood that the decision was unanimously accepted by the DA Federal Executive at a meeting on Wednesday, and that some of the affected parties had been informed of their reshuffling, axing, or promotion during the weekend.“It’s been a liability for us and he needed to do what he needed to do and ultimately leaders need to make difficult decisions,” said one of the insiders.“It’s obviously not nice for John and I feel sorry for him. But it’s not a complete removal from the executive, it’s a middle ground.”Another source indicated that the pressure from the farming community, including from some who contributed to the party’s coffers, was unavoidable.One DA insider told the Sunday Times that there was pushback at the federal executive meeting with some DA leaders questioning why deputy ministers were being removed.Hill-Lewis is said to have told the party leaders that he was underwhelmed by the work of deputy ministers, arguing that they were beholden to their ANC ministers “There was a lot of pushback on the deputy ministers. People didn’t understand his reasoning but it was not so much about John.” Hill-Lewis on Wednesday announced that he had asked Ramaphosa to make a number of changes to the DA members of his executive including the demotion of Steenhuisen as minister of agriculture to become the deputy minister of trade, industry and competition.Willie Aucamp is set to replace Steenhuisen as the minister of agriculture. The other changes proposed by Hill-Lewis include David Maynier as the minister of forestry, fisheries and environment, Jack Bloom as the deputy minister of water and sanitation, as well as the axing of Mimmy Gondwe as the deputy minister of higher education to be replaced by Yusuf Cassim.
