He’s gone from being the youngest councillor in Durban’s history to leading the official opposition through the creation of the GNU. But more recently, his leadership faced scrutiny following a public spat with Dion George and ongoing criticism from the farming community over the handling of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. What do you think his legacy will be?
Overall,extremely positively. The consituency he represented was a very diverse and difficult one. The fact that the party grew under his leadership, albeit less than was hoped, was positive. The alternative to not going into the GNNU was an unholy alliance of ANCC with EFF or MK and I would hate to know how that would have turned out. The FMD crisis has many other players and previous failures which have unfortunately manifested now.
He is intellectually limited, and has limited the growth of the DA in an inclusive direction, so the party is stuck in mainly white constituency that is obsessed with self interest rather than broader economic justice. But he has contributed to some important achievements.
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He was always solidly stodgy rather than inspiring. The first sign of trouble was not so much appointing Cabanac (though, as with Gouws, the claim that nothing was known about Cabanac’s background is hard to credit), but it got really bad when a man who was properly appointed and had been performing at least satisfactorily was asked if he wouldn’t mind just quitting. That’s a terrible way to treat any employee.
Other DA ministers have done a good job, some very good, but Steenhuisen has not matched that.
It’s not a crime to not be able to manage your own money, but cabinet ministers and leaders of parties that pride themselves on being capable need to do better.
Basically since Cabanac the embarassment has just grown.
In truth he was never the right person for the job. He was a solid whip, but leader of the party was a promotion too high: The Peter Principle in action.
But it is the fault of the party that he was in that position so long. If they keep on voting for him, what’s he supposed to do?
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