Can South Africa's Controversial Sports and Arts Minister Deliver?
In the almost four months since he assumed office, Gayton McKenzie’s tenure has been riddled with controversy, with industry stakeholders saying there’s lack of sustainable strategy from his department.
South African Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie arrives to listen to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speak at the temporary Parliament in City Hall on July 18, 2024, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Ever since he was appointed as the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture in South Africa’s Government of National Unity in July, Gayton McKenzie has been making headlines. The former convict-turned-politician maintains an affable personality and speaks his mind about whatever is in the news. It endeared him to some and alienated others. And when it comes to his new role, McKenzie has appeared to be busy with various arts-and-sports-related matters. But just how effective has he been, after almost four months in office?
McKenzie’s past is well-known to the South African public. Arrested for armed robbery at the age of 21, he became a leader of the 28s gang while in prison. Upon his release, he turned his life around, becoming a businessman and motivational speaker. Then in 2013, he founded the Patriotic Alliance alongside former African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Kenny Kunene. In 2022, McKenzie took up the role of the Central Karoo District’s executive mayor, a position he held until this year when he moved to his next assignment in government.
In the almost four months since McKenzie assumed office, his tenure has been marked by controversy. As leader of the Patriotic Alliance party, he based his entire campaign on protecting the borders and kicking foreign nationals out of the country, a polarizing political and social issue in the country. McKenzie even adopted the word“abahambe” (let them go) as a slogan for his campaign. He’d initially gunned for the Home Affairs ministry, which would have given him and his party significant power to achieve their policy on foreign nationals.
Continued controversy
After assuming office in the arts ministry, one of McKenzie’s first actions was to look into the COVID-19 funding that was made available to artists and sportspeople when the pandemic hit. This caused an uproar, with some people saying it undermined the dignity of those who lost work as a result of the lockdown and needed support. Others claimed it was “politicking,” to show that he was working on issues pertaining to his portfolio.
McKenzie has also faced backlash for saying he and his party support Die Stem, the Afrikaans part of the country’s national anthem. The opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has repeatedly called for the removal of Die Stem from the national anthem. Based on a poem adopted by the then-Nationalist government, the EFF has called it “an anthem of oppression, a rallying cry for a regime that systematically enacted violence against Black South Africans.”
Today’s leaders were among the students who, in 1976, marched to have Afrikaans removed as a medium of instruction in schools. Black South Africans, especially, still take offense that a section of their national anthem keeps this sore part of history alive. But it’s also a two-edged sword, considering that more than 13 percent of South Africans, not only people who identify as Afrikaans, speak the language.Questions over salary donation promises
After his election, McKenzie promised to donate his full parliamentary salary to a foundation he’ll register in the name of missing schoolgirl Joshlin Smith. While speaking to journalists later on, he reiterated this promise, stating that the donation would be for the duration of his stay in parliament. He added, “I’m not here for money; I’m here to change lives.”
About a month later, in July, he also made another promise to donate his first salary to a struggling art gallery. Then a month later, in a video posted to the National Motorsport Mzansi account, McKenzie is seen promising to donate his second salary to the organizers of a motorsport event.
A Daily Maverick report in August claimed that the foundation in honor of Smith is yet to be registered. And until now, there is no record with the name “Joshlin Smith” on the Department of Social Development’s database of nonprofit organizations.Lack of vision and strategy for the arts
Perhaps the most concerning part of the controversy surrounding McKenzie is his admission that he knows very little about the arts, although he insists he’s willing to learn. For Dr. Ismail Mahomed, an award-winning playwright and director of the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, McKenzie’s commitment is admirable, but the structure he came into is shaky.
Mahomed says that he expects any minister who assumes the arts and culture portfolio to have the solid backing of strategic and visionary thinkers, but doubts that the current crop is capable of even translating any of the minister’s promises into policies or strategic plans.
Mahomed believes that McKenzie’s interventions in the arts have been “quick-fix solutions.” Like when he intervened after the National School of the Arts announced that it was in dire financial straits. But overall, Mahomed is still concerned about “a lack of sustainable strategy or vision that can, in the long term, transform the arts.”
Despite these controversies, some believe McKenzie’s appointment still provides some benefit. Dillon Phiri, who runs Creative Nestlings, a hub for young creatives to connect and share opportunities, says that while he was initially disappointed in McKenzie’s appointment, mainly due to the latter’s inexperience, he likes that someone like him occupies that position.
“He provides a certain level of the idea of transparency, and the idea of an accessible minister, in a sense. His idea of transparency helps us gauge what kind of resources are available [in the department],” Phiri says.
It might be too early to say definitively that he is a leader who makes unfulfilled promises, but his past track record is not doing him any favors.
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