By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider

After two months of sitting at the helm of the Democratic Alliance (DA) leadership, Geordin Hill-Lewis has called for former DA leader, John Steenhuisen, to be removed from his position as Minister of Agriculture.

These calls come after Hill-Lewis decided to strip the agriculture portfolio from Steenhuisen and offered him to be demoted to Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition instead.

According to various sources, Hill-Lewis has written a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa requesting that there be a change to the DA ministers and Deputy Ministers in his cabinet.

The DA’s federal council is set to hold a meeting to discuss the possible reshuffle. Currently the DA is the second biggest party in the GNU coalition as they currently occupy six ministries and six deputy ministries.

Steenhuisen at the time the GNU was being formed had played an instrumental part in negotiating the DA’s place within the coalition, however he has now stepped down from his position as DA’s leader in April.

This has followed immense internal pressure in part due to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) crisis that has been plaguing the agricultural sector.

Hill-Lewis has called for; Steenhuisen to be removed from his position as minister, move Steenhuisen into a much smaller role in the cabinet, to move David Maynier (who is currently the Western Cape Education MEC) into Aucamp’s old post, to shift Alexandra Abrahams who holds a position as deputy Trade Minister to deputy Minister of energy and electricity(replacing Samantha Graham-Mare who will permanently leave the post).

 Aucamp has also stated that if these demands are confirmed then his first job would be to settle pending court cases regarding the FMD vaccine policy and facilitate talks with farm groups to discuss the outbreak.

Hill-Lewis also gave Steenhuisen two months to show progress on agriculture before making these requests to Ramaphosa and decided that the window of opportunity had closed.