The changes the DA leader has proposed seem to have one goal: winning back areas it has lost, such as the rural Afrikaans and coloured constituencies, and attracting new ones.

John Steenhuisen took over the DA leadership from Mmusi Maimane to stabilise the party's support base, particularly white Afrikaners, who felt sidelined by Maimane's attempts to attract new voters. Seven years later, this same constituency has largely cost Steenhuisen the party leadership and his ministerial position.

When DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis announced on Wednesday, 17 June, that he had asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove John Steenhuisen from his Cabinet and also reshuffle other DA members of the executive, the move was framed as part of a broader reassessment of the DA's Government of National Unity (GNU) team.

But with local elections looming, the DA can ill afford Steenhuisen's perceived mishandling of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) crisis as agriculture minister, which threatens to alienate parts of its conservative Afrikaans support base. The reshuffle is an attempt to placate this constituency, where it faces fierce competition from the FF Plus ahead of the polls.

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The DA also faces pressure from another front, having lost repeated by-elections to the PA, which is moving in on another key constituency: coloured voters.

In a statement, Hill-Lewis said that he had written to Ramaphosa proposing several changes to the DA's representation in the national executive,...