NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
DA leader John Steenhuisen requests to replace Minister Dr Dion George with Willie Aucamp
Agriculture Minister and Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen wants to replace Minister Dion George for ‘underperformance’, but has failed to produce evidence for the general public.
A coalition of NGOs note with concern that Steenhuisen’s request “emanate[s] not from a broad public interest, but from a narrow sector of organisations who seek to continue profiting from an extractivist model of wildlife consumption.”
Late last week, the news broke that Steenhuisen requested President Cyril Ramaphosa to replace the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE) Minister Dion George with the DA’s national spokesperson Willie Aucamp. Alleged ‘underperformance’ criticisms have been mentioned, however, no publicly available evidence has been produced, highlighting concerns that this move may be politically motivated by vested interests.
Blood Lions, Humane World for Animals South Africa, Voice4Lions and Animal Law Reform South Africa have written as a coalition to President Cyril Ramaphosa to urge him to reject Steenhuisen’s request and commit to transparent, democratic decision making that demonstrates consistent and reliable leadership.
Steenhuisen’s request does not align with these values and “amounts to a challenge to democratically developed wildlife policy and highlights the conflict of interest apparent in his dual roles as minister in the Government of National Unity and party leader of the Democratic Alliance”, according to the coalition.
The DA leader’s proposed replacement, Willie Aucamp, has openly shown close alliance with the same organisations fighting to keep the commercial captive predator industry alive, such as Wildlife Ranching South Africa and the Sustainable Use Coalition of South Africa. He has close family ties with a wildlife breeding farm for buffalo, Kings wildebeest, Golden oryx and other rarities bred for trophies, as well as a family hunting farm.
The captive predator industry makes regular claims regarding purported conservation value of breeding and trading captive-bred lions but have yet to produce scientific, peer-reviewed evidence to substantiate these claims. Minister George, however, has demonstrated a progressive and evidence-based approach to wildlife conservation and animal well-being throughout his tenure. His explicit commitment to end the commercial captive lion industry has been continually met with fierce resistance from industry proponents, including court challenges on the inclusion of animal well-being in NEMBA and lion bone export quotas.
At the same time, his engagement on commercial captive predator industry issues have been transparent and democratic, led by public participation (including draft notices for public comment), involving stakeholder engagement (the continuation of the Ministerial Lion Task Team, the Wildlife Well-Being Forum, and the Wildlife Forum), and using peer-reviewed science (examples here).
His tenure has similarly seen him directly address broader environmental and other conservation issues, including finalising 150 abalone appeals; fishing rights allocation; taking action against a shark long-line vessel that breached permit conditions; expressing his commitment to implement the SADC Vulture Conservation Strategy and Action Plan; increasing protection of African penguins; identifying 11 Renewable Energy Development Zones; finalising the Climate Change Response Plan for coastal adaptation; finalising the National Carbon Credits and Biodiversity Offsets Framework strategy; adopting the Rio Declaration on Crimes that Affect the Environment, amongst other pressing environmental concerns.
This latest move by the DA leader could set South Africa as a country back by a decade in terms of conservation policy reform that would restore our standing as a leader in conservation and eco-tourism.
His proposed Cabinet reshuffle also presents a worrying contradiction, since the DA passed a resolution at their 2023 Federal Congress to “end captive predator breeding, captive canned lion hunts and lion bone export”. A resolution that is completely in line with Minister George’s vision and has full approval from Cabinet.
Blood Lions, Humane World for Animals South Africa, Voice4Lions and Animal Law Reform South Africa have urged the President to reject Steenhuisen’s request and to recommit to the democratically developed wildlife conservation policy framework settled over the last seven years.
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For further details please contact:
Blood Lions
Media contact: Dr Louise de Waal
Cell: 076 148 1533
Voice4Lions
Media contact: Ms Linda Park
Cell: 082 812 3870