By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) succession battle heats up, as leadership tensions have now spilled into the Public Protector’s office, ahead of the party’s elective congress in April 2026.
Steenhuisen is seeking a third term as the party leader.
Steenhuisen is said to be waiting for Ivan Meyer, the DA’s federal chairperson, to officially open the leadership nominations process.
The public bickering between the DA leaders started when Dr Dion George was accused of sexually harassing and mistreating staff in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. These claims were never proved. Steenhuisen has been accused of being behind these claims as he attempts to consolidate power within the DA.
According to an affidavit submitted to the Public Protector, George alleged that Steenhuisen orchestrated his removal from the cabinet to install a successor who would protect specific commercial interests, specifically of the captive lion breeding and hunting industry.
Steenhuisen replaced him with current Minister Willie Aucamp because the latter’s family allegedly benefits from the lucrative captive lion breeding and hunting industry — a sector George had actively worked to phase out during his tenure.
He wants the Public Protector to investigate Steenhuisen’s “unlawful interference with the DFFE’s mandate and functions, his removal and appointment of Aucamp, as well as his failure to disclose his personal commercial interests and his conflict of interest”.
He also called for investigations into Aucamp for alleged undisclosed conflicts of interest, the withdrawal of a South African proposal to tighten abalone trade rules at the 2025 CITES conference, and the failure to renew a task team aimed at phasing out captive lion breeding.
This accusation is part of a broader, bitter fallout within the DA.
Before his removal, George (as the DA’s Federal Finance Chair) revoked Steenhuisen’s access to a party-issued credit card due to unreconciled personal expenses.
The DA’s once-united front is cracking under these public battles, with leaked claims about Steenhuisen’s party credit card misuse and unverified reports of George’s staff mistreatment adding fuel.
Aucamp himself lodged a prior complaint with the Public Protector in late December 2025, accusing George of abusing state resources and fabricating a whistleblower report to investigate him baselessly.
George’s chief of staff, Shelton Mollentze, is also implicated in the complaint, alongside his personal assistant, Traverse Le Goff.
Aucamp claims that Mollentze asked staff in the DFFE to open an investigation against him.
“Mollentze has apparently provided the employees of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment with a list of my farms and/or companies that needed to be investigated by them,” the Minister’s complaint reads.
The infighting between Steenhuisen, George and Aucamp could also be damaging to the DA ahead of the local government elections at the end of the year.