and its coalition partners signed an agreement to govern several municipalities on 16 December 2021. Internal party affairs In the early days of Steenhuisen's leadership, he appointed Natasha Mazzone as the new chief whip of the DA parliamentary caucus on 31 October 2019. The party lost control of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in December 2019. In August 2016, then-DA leader Maimane formed an informal alliance with the Economic Freedom Fighters to secure control of several hung municipalities, including Johannesburg with Herman Mashaba of the DA as the city's mayor. Mashaba resigned as mayor in October 2019 and left office in November. A vacancy was therefore created. DA Federal Council Chairwoman Helen Zille and Steenhuisen both opposed a coalition agreement with the EFF. On 4 December, the ANC regained control of the City of Johannesburg. Previous DA coalition partners and a few DA councillors voted for the ANC candidate, Geoff Makhubo. On 5 December 2020, Steenhuisen announced his Shadow Cabinet. The majority of the positions remained unchanged, with Geordin Hill-Lewis remaining at Finance, Andrew Whitfield at Police and Siviwe Gwarube at Health. He removed Phumzile van Damme as Shadow Minister of Communications and replaced her with Zakhele Mbhele. He also granted Van Damme a health-related sabbatical until March 2021. She subsequently accused Steenhuisen of trying to use her health sideline her. It was claimed that she was being sidelined because she had not supported Steenhuisen candidature as leader of the party The DA disputed Van Damme's accusation, but she vehemently insisted that Steenhuisen had instructed her to cease all her parliamentary duties and go on an unsolicited sabbatical. Steenhuisen then claimed he had made the sabbatical optional and Van Damme could continue with her parliamentary duties. On 12 February 2021, Van Damme announced that her disagreement with Steenhuisen regarding her sabbatical had been resolved and she would return to work, focusing on digital technologies. She later resigned as a DA MP in May 2021, citing a clique of individuals. On 18 August 2022, Steenhuisen conducted a reshuffle of his shadow cabinet. He promoted the deputy chief whip of the DA parliamentary caucus Siviwe Gwarube to chief whip of the DA caucus, while former chief whip Natasha Mazzone was appointed the National Security Advisor to Steenhuisen. Veteran DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard was appointed Shadow Minister of Communications, while Phineas Masipa was appointed Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and