OPINION | Gabriel Crouse: Was Steenhuisen aware of Roman Cabanac's racist remarks? - News24

Gabriel Crouse 

DA leader John Steenhuisen's time as agriculture minister has been fairly quiet, but this headline landed with a clang: "Steenhuisen appoints controversial right-winger in key role".

Roman Cabanac, a "controversial podcaster and conservative social media activist," has been appointed chief of staff in the office of the minister of agriculture.

That description is worth reconsidering.

'Blacks are not liberal'

Shortly before the 2024 elections, Cabanac posted on X categorically that "blacks are not liberals".

He appears to have subsequently deleted all posts he made on X for years until August. It is unclear whether this was directly related to his appointment to work in the minister's office.

Cabanac's now-deleted post read in full: "The DA is a constant reminder that blacks are not liberals. If you want to be a liberal party, it cannot be black run."

This racist remark was made in response to the Sunday Times publishing a section of BOSA leader Mmusi Maimane's book about why he left the DA. Cabanac placed himself once again on the wrong side of a controversy that has bedevilled the DA since 2019.

The DA's current and diverse leadership has until now, been tirelessly consistent in arguing that Maimane's race was in no way held against him, and that his withdrawal as leader was based on race-neutral performance metrics. This included the party's electoral decline from 2014 to 2019. I should disclose to the reader that I believed the DA's argument, and generally still do.

However, Steenhuisen's decision to appoint Cabanac in the most intimate and powerful role within his office puts those denials in a new light. It is baffling.

Was Steenhuisen simply unaware of the remark? The alternative possibility is, from where I sit, currently unthinkable.

I should make two personal points explicit in the spirit of open disclosure.

First, I know Cabanac and have repeatedly appeared on his podcast, The Morning Shot. Like many others whose views are seriously wrongheaded, he is easy to get along with and has been very supportive of some of my work, like calling attention to civil campaigns I led, for which I am grateful.

That said, Cabanac's anti-constitutional views are not at all secret, nor is my private and public opposition. I have, for example, called out the particular "blacks are not liberal" tweet multiple times on current affairs TV and radio platforms as an example of the kind of anti-black racist view that would not have been said out loud by a public figure in 2014, but which has become a way to get likes and clicks on a fringe of the spectrum. My argument is that words, not force, must explicitly rebut this.

While making these statements I repeatedly revisited Cabanac's tweet – where further anti-black racist comments piled up – in the arguably naïve hope that Cabanac would provide some clear parsing, mouse-slip story, self-rebuttal, withdrawal, or apology.

But there was none.

Second, I rate Steenhuisen extremely highly. I am on record as describing him as the greatest liberal leader in the rainbow republic due to his policy achievements of 2019, contribution to the DA's electoral rise in 2024, and the GNU triumph of effective cooperation most recently.

So, my own tendency is to assume that Steenhuisen was unaware of some of Cabanac's views.

Cabanac's illiberal views

However, our professional commitment is to address race relations based on non-racial values in the light of evidence, not personal attitudes, so, it is important to lay out some facts.

First, and most obviously, there are, contra Cabanac, liberals of all races. Liberalism's appeal in the Mandela-Mbeki era was potent when jobs grew, the economy grew, and service delivery grew under the post-apartheid new liberal order. Additionally, the horrors of race nationalism were fresh memories and a 'never again' spirit towards racial illiberalism was relatively strong.

Cabanac is vocally illiberal and has been for years. The rising popularity of illiberal views like his, and others, as illiberalism comes in many forms, has been effectively exploited in all race groups.

A basic measure is the appeal of dictatorship. The last survey by Afrobarometer to publish racial breakdowns on this question showed that 62% of white respondents and 65% of black respondents were "willing" or "very willing" to give up the right to vote in regular elections for material gain, basically the same shockingly high number. That illiberal bargain has almost doubled in popularity.

But it is not all bad news. The DA liberal torchbearer has grown and diversified. Last week, the Social Research Foundation (SRF) published a poll showing that whites accounted for 40% of DA supporters in the last election. The overall breakdown for the DA was 40% white, 8% Indian, 27% coloured, and 24% black. The rainbow works.

One reason the SRF is credible is that its polling correctly forecast the 2024 election results.

On the key question about Cabanac specifically – who should get government jobs – an SRF poll asked whether respondents agree, or not, that the "government should appoint the best candidates to jobs regardless of the race of candidates."

More than 80% of black respondents and more than 90% of coloured and white respondents agreed with the liberal merit principle.

But who in their right mind, of any race, could say that Cabanac is the best person for that potent, managerial government job?

His anti-constitutional, secessionist preferences threaten to conspire against the projects of growing productive agricultural output through the classical liberal formula: strong private property, spreading title deeds, free trade, efficient extension services, prudent risk management, and non-racialism in principle and practice.

Cabanac seems to be far more interested in rejecting that formula. For example, he went to Orania last year – an openly illiberal, racially exclusive enclave in the semi-desert that celebrates architects of apartheid as "folk heroes" – and concluded that the volksdorp was so good, his audience should focus on "building your very own Orania".

Does he want to do that from the Union Buildings?

Gabriel Crouse is a Fellow at the Institute of Race Relations