Episode 04 - John Steenhuisen, DA
John Henry Steenhuisen is the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the leader of the opposition in parliament and a long time party member of the DA and its predecessor, the Democratic Party. According to John the DA has four primary values that it stands for, namely: non-racialism, rule of law and respect for the constitution, a social-market economy and the building of a capable state.
Before going into their policy offering, there were a couple of important issues that have been lobbied at the DA as criticisms. The first was with regards to the ‘black-exit’ (the resignation of a few prominent black leaders) from the DA.
John had several points as a response, his first point was to say that this phenomenon has been exaggerated by the media, pointing out that the EFF had got rid of 75% of its parliamentary caucus, all of which was black, ActionSA had lost its KZN leadership, again all black, and yet it was only the DA who has been criticized for its loss of black leaders.
In his words, ‘The reality is it is an obsession with the DA around race (42:46)’. The other point he made on this topic was that the DA is the most diverse both in its membership and its voter base, ‘the majority of our voter base is not white and people forget that (43:00)’.
Following on from this point I asked him about the ‘roadkill’ joke he had made on podcast and chill with MacG. He made sure to highlight that it was a throwaway comment and was entirely intended as a joke, he did concede that it was in very bad taste, however.
‘But goodness me, out of an hour and 18 minute long podcast, for the media to jump on that one thing was a little bit much (47:13).’ After our discussion on these points I asked John whether he thought the DA faced a hostile media, ‘Absolutely, particularly the mainstream media love to bash the DA (48:46),’ he responded.
Moving on to the bulk of this conversation, it was the most centred around specific policy plans for the various, large-scale problems South Africa faces (one would hope for that to be the case, talking to the leader of the opposition).
Our discussion touched on crime, education, service delivery, sustainability vs energy security, nuclear power, unemployment, job creation, corruption and more. For me, the most interesting policy positions were those for education, energy and the economy.
In terms of education policy, the DA wishes to see different educational tracks be introduced into schools from a relatively young age to separate learners into vocational and traditional learning environments. This is primarily a way to give learners skills with which they can enter and contribute positively to the country’s economy.
‘I think our education system is outdated, I think we still teach on a Victorian level (16:45).’ He also thinks that blue collar career education should be treated with the same respect as white-collar education, as it is the tradesmen and women who serve as the backbone of the country and the economy.
While many of us may be familiar with the primary DA energy policy of the privatization of energy generation, an area that is not often spoken about is what their stance on energy transition is. Although the DA would like to see sustainable energy solutions implemented in the longer term, they are wary of trying to achieve this too quickly, at the cost of energy security and maintaining cheap electricity.
In John’s words, ‘I think that the problem we have in South Africa is that if we think that we are going to be able to just switch off coal overnight we are going to drive the cost of electricity up to a point where it becomes really unaffordable (39:37).’
The final policy area I want to touch on is with regards to their economic policy. According to John, the first step in reducing unemployment is to restart growth in the country by making it more hospitable to international investment. This means no expropriation without compensation, no nationalisation of the banks and large-scale deregulation of current labour policies.
But once the growth is in place, there needs to be the necessary skills in the country to capitalise on the increased opportunity. ‘We’ve got to make sure that the type of people we are pushing out of the schooling system are equipped with the skills that you need to compete in a modern economy (22:30).’
As with all the podcasts it ended in a discussion about the DA’s thoughts surrounding coalitions after the 2024 elections. The DA’s position on this is that coalition partners need to align with them on their 4 key values. That means that they are absolutely unwilling to work with the EFF. John stated that the ANC in the current form does not live up to that standard, but he would be willing to reconsider if things change within the party.
Finally, he gave credit to both the ACDP and VF+ as excellent coalition partners, while stating that the DA needs to be circumspect about who of the newer parties would serve as coalition partners in the future. I think that we should all apply that same circumspection when deciding where our vote is going in the next election.
