Truth about dodgy disappearance in minister’s photo

The Department of Agriculture has blamed a junior staff member for editing out the chairman of a major farming association in South Africa from a group photo.

The revelation comes after Sunday newspaper Rapport obtained an apology letter from agriculture minister John Steenhuisen sent to Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai) chairman Theo de Jager.

De Jager was part of a South African delegation that joined Steenhuisen on a trip to the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture in Berlin last year.

A photo posted online sometime in January 2025 showed De Jager behind Steenhuisen on the sidelines of the event.

However, there was no sign of De Jager in the same photo published with an article about the trip in the department’s PEO – The Seed newsletter in February 2025.

After the alteration was highlighted on X/Twitter, Steenhuisen told Rapport he had no idea why De Jager was removed from the photo and that he would launch an investigation into the matter.

De Jager was upset about the alteration and emphasised that his trip was paid for by the minister.

“It is not as if I wormed myself into the photo,” he said.

In the apology letter sent to De Jager on 16 April, Steenhuisen emphasised that he regarded the action as unacceptable and reiterated that neither he nor any person in the ministry had approved the change.

However, he acknowledged that he must accept responsibility for the serious error in judgment of staff members who compile the newsletter.

Steenhuisen said new guidelines were put in place to prevent such errors from happening in the future, and any similar decisions would first have to be cleared by him or the department’s director-general.

Steenhuisen’s spokesperson Joylene van Wyk also told Rapport that the newsletter was handled by internal departmental workers separate from the ministry.

She explained that one of the junior employees in the communications division decided to edit De Jager out of the photo based on a News24 article.

Two staff members were subsequently warned about the way internal newsletters were compiled.

Following the separation of the agriculture and land reform departments, the employees were no longer working for Steenhuisen’s department.

Allegations in News24 article

The News24 article in question stated that De Jager was neither an official nor an unofficial advisor to Steenhuisen after concerns were raised about the minister’s proximity to the chairman.

It said that De Jager was a “key proponent” of the narrative that the government was targeting Afrikaner farmers in seizures of land without compensation.

Van Wyk denied that De Jager was an official or unofficial advisor to the minister, and said his views on political matters were irrelevant to Steenhuisen.

She emphasised that De Jager does not represent the ministry. “He represents Saai and articulates his views on their behalf,” she said.

“He is a stakeholder in the agriculture sector and, as such, makes representations, interacts with and lobbies the ministry on behalf of Saai’s extensive membership.”

While the article clearly reported Steenhuisen’s rejection of the allegations that De Jager was in his inner circle, the minister and De Jager took issue with the word “distances” being used in the headline.

De Jager accused News24 of false reporting by alleging that Steenhuisen had “distanced himself” from De Jager for his criticism of the “draconian” Expropriation Act.

He shared a screenshot of a WhatsApp discussion with Steenhuisen in which the minister also labelled the article as “factually incorrect.”

“I was sent a set of questions which basically alleged you were working in my office,” Steenhuisen said.

News24 also spoke to Marianna Du Plessis, a consultant who previously worked with De Jager and had been appointed as a secretary in Steenhuisen’s ministry.

Du Plessis told the publication she had distanced herself from De Jager due to his stance on the Pretoria-Washington fallout.

Saai has formed an agreement with Afriforum and Solidarity to coordinate efforts to assist people wishing to pursue opportunities to settle in the US as refugees.

In addition to chairing one of South Africa’s largest farmer associations, De Jager was the first South African to be appointed president of the World Agriculture Organisation.

He is currently managing owner of an organic subtropical fruit and goat farm in Tzaneen, Limpopo, and is also the president of the convocation of Stellenbosch University.