To: Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen, South African Department of Agriculture,

Roman Cabanac must go!

Controversial podcaster appointed chief of staff in the Department of Agriculture by John Steenhuisen is still in office two months after he was supposedly told to “step-down”. 

This follows Steenhuisen's public declaration at the Cape Town Press Club at the beginning of September [1]. Cabanac, who holds an LLB and calls himself an entrepreneur, is well-known for his podcast Morning Shot and his unsuccessful 2019 campaign for the Capitalist Party of SA [2]. Cabanac is a well-known bigot, holds controversial right-wing ideologies and has tweeted multiple inflammatory tweets directed to the President and other key members in parliament. There are multiple tweets where he refers to black people as “Bantu” and calls them “monarchists” at heart. He is an apartheid denialist and holds anti-semitic views. All of these were publicly available on his Twitter/X account before he deleted them after being appointed chief of staff.  


We demand Steenhuisen to: 

  • Offer Cabanac a golden handshake (a mutual separation agreement) 
  • Stop with podcadre deployment 
  • Employ qualified candidates in line with the ethics and values enshrined in the constitution for future positions within the Department.

Why is this important?

Add your name to put public pressure on John Steenhuisen to approach this matter with urgency, it is completely unacceptable that someone like Cabanac can continue to enjoy the perks of a R1,4 million salary when he has been instructed to leave. Additionally, there are far better qualifying candidates who could be given the role. 

The government of national unity is entrusted with so much power and responsibility to serve citizens. Beyond that, the last national election results have shown a decline in the democratic process. We have seen greater levels of political apathy from young people. This means that public officials have a greater role to play in restoring public trust and confidence that government does indeed work for everyone. 

Public officials should be committed to the values of good governance, transparency, and accountability and to being responsive to citizens' needs. The DA has outright spoken about cadre deployment, which has been a core undertaking of the ANC government and remains largely criticised and credited for the various issues within government. 

It is hugely surprising to see the DA taking a similar stance, theirs though largely being recruiting controversial podcasters/YouTubers with regressive views and a controversial history into key positions in government. Just recently, Renaldo Gouws, who has a history of racist remarks, has only just been fired [3] from the DA following an investigation into his long-documented racism, which the DA claims was not aware of. 

If the GNU is to work for all of us, such undertakings threaten our democracy and should be dealt with accordingly. 

Roman Cabanac has no place being the Chief of Staff within the Department of Agriculture; much like his fellow podbro Gouws, he must go. 

References 

[1] Agriculture minister Kohan Steenhuisen asks Roman Cabanac to step down by Karyn Maughan for News24. 12 September 2024. https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/agriculture-minister-john-steenhuisen-asks-roman-cabanac-to-step-down-as-chief-of-staff-20240912

[2] Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has appointed Roman Cabanac, a controversial podcaster and media activist to head his department. Cabanac is the new chief of staff. By
Kamogelo Moichela for IOL. 27 August 2024. https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/minister-john-steenhuisen-appoints-polarising-roman-cabanac-as-chief-of-staff-ed43ad03-dec2-4b45-bc1c-c47cf48b4c3b

[3] Why did we waste three months?’ Renaldo Gouws questions DA’s disciplinary process after being fired for racism by Hope Ntanzi from the IOL. 23 September 2024. https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/why-did-we-waste-three-months-renaldo-gouws-questions-das-disciplinary-process-after-being-fired-for-racism-83ff1130-6cb6-4e18-8f40-afaf081e13e5

How it will be delivered

emailed to the decision-makers

Category