South Africa's Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has said he will not seek re-election as the party's leader in April - a move that may threaten the stability of the coalition government.

The DA, South Africa's second-largest party, entered into a coalition with its arch-rival, the African National Congress, in 2024 after the ANC lost its parliamentary majority.

Steenhuisen assumed leadership of the pro-business DA in 2019 and currently serves as the agriculture minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa's government.

The 49-year-old was widely expected to run again but reportedly withdrew his bid amid several controversies.

"For the rest of this term of office, I will focus all of my time and energy as minister of agriculture on defeating the most devastating foot-and-mouth disease outbreak our country has ever seen," he told a press conference.

Steenhuisen began his political career at age 22, when he was elected to the Durban city council for the Democratic Party, the DA's predecessor.

He rose through the party's local and regional leadership before becoming the party's leader, a role traditionally held by white candidates, two decades later.

It was widely reported that Steenhuisen would run unopposed for the DA leadership at its upcoming conference.

But it seems a variety of issues led to his decision not to do so, including his fallout with another senior DA member, ex-Environment Affairs Minister Dion George, and allegations, of which he was cleared in January, that he had abused his party credit card.

He has also been criticised for his handling of the foot-and-mouth outbreak, with farmers accusing his department of being an "obstacle in a crisis", according to South Africa's News24 website.

The country has struggled over the past four years to contain the highly infectious virus, which has now spread to most provinces, severely affecting the livestock industry.

It causes blisters inside an animal's mouth and under its hooves, which can lead to lameness and feeding problems. In dairy cattle, milk production will decline, and the cattle's value will be permanently reduced.

Under Steenhuisen, the DA party agreed to join the ANC as its biggest partner in the government of national unity nearly two years ago.

It was a historic moment for the country as the ANC, the party that brought in democratic rule in 1994 with Nelson Mandela and ended white-minority rule, had lost its parliamentary majority.

As expected, it has been a fractious political marriage, but despite some differences, they have stayed together - and Steenhuisen and Ramaphosa have shown how the partnership can work.

This was best exemplified when they supported each other in the Oval Office showdown with US President Donald Trump in May last year.

After Trump confronted the delegation with a video in support of discredited claims of a white genocide in South Africa, it was Steenhuisen who assured the US president that the majority of white farmers wanted to stay in the country.

Their performance proved to South Africans that the government of national unity was worth the domestic bickering.

No DA leaders have announced their candidacies for the top post yet, but Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has been touted as a possible successor.

Steenhuisen and Hill-Lewis are close, and the latter has repeatedly said he would not run against his friend, according to the TimesLive news site.