https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/02-20260702-072428-International.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nThe DA is facing \u201cdeepening divisions\u201d within the party following John Steenhuisen\u2019s exclusive interview on News24.<\/p>\n
Steenhuisen mentioned feeling betrayed by the party\u2019s new leader Geordin Hill-Lewis, highlighting his deal with Hill-Lewis that he would not contest the leader\u2019s position but would be allowed to continue as Minister of Agriculture. Steenhuisen also implicated Tony Leon and others for putting pressure on DA members to meet with members of Leon\u2019s company.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe says that because the DA is in coalition with the bigger main party ANC, it has been put in a \u201cdifficult position\u201d and will have to \u201ctread carefully\u201d not to be seen to be getting closer to the ANC. Compounding the issue are the internal faction dynamics within the Democratic Alliance.<\/p>\n
While \u201cthe job of a new leader is to make people feel that they belong,\u201d the argument between Steenhuisen and Hill-Lewis indicates that the party\u2019s \u201cpromise has been broken\u201d and that they are no longer performing. DA representatives in government are concerned that they might be treated the same way as Steenhuisen.<\/p>\n
However, Professor Seepe adds that people must understand that outcomes of elections do have consequences, and that the new leader may have been under pressure to \u201cassert himself\u201d and brand himself different to the previous one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn politics, perceptions are everything.\u201d The professor notes former president Jacob Zuma\u2019s visit to the Gupta\u2019s as \u201cpolitically unfortunate\u201d pointing out that the Gupta\u2019s are disliked in South Africa. Despite his links with them and loyalty to them, Zuma has not been able to see the damage they have caused to his reputation. The fact that the justice department has been attempting to get them back to account for their actions indicates that Zuma\u2019s visit will lead to serious political ramifications. \u201cIt is not only about friendship, it\u2019s also about judgement,\u201d Professor Seepe emphasizes.<\/p>\n
Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Professor Sipho Seepe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za 02 July 2026 3-minute read The DA is facing \u201cdeepening divisions\u201d within the party following John Steenhuisen\u2019s exclusive interview on News24. Steenhuisen mentioned feeling betrayed by the party\u2019s new leader Geordin Hill-Lewis, highlighting his deal with Hill-Lewis that he would not contest the leader\u2019s position but would be allowed to continue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":106711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[35,28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sabaahul-muslim","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/da-3.jpg?fit=658%2C466&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-rL8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-11 09:40:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106713,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106710\/revisions\/106713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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