DA takes Gayton McKenzie to the Public Protector

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted a formal complaint against Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie with the Public Protector for withdrawing South Africa’s submission to the Venice Biennale. 

McKenzie, who is the leader of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), cancelled a South African artwork that was proposed for the 61st Venice Biennale later this year over concerns about content related to the deaths of women and children in Gaza. 

According to the Daily Maverick, Art Periodic partnered with the department to administer, produce and fundraise for South Africa’s pavilion at the 2026 event. 

The ministry terminated this partnership and has retaken control of the management of South Africa’s pavilion. 

Countries are required to submit their plans for the biennale by January 10. The last-minute cancellation places South Africa’s exhibition in jeopardy. 

This was met by backlash from the Government of National Unity (GNU) partner, the DA, who criticised McKenzie for allegedly replacing a properly constituted institutional process with his own personal or political preferences. 

“The Democratic Alliance condemns Minister Gayton McKenzie’s decision to overturn South Africa’s official Venice Biennale submission after a lawful, independent selection process had already been concluded,” said DA Spokesperson on Sports, Arts and Culture, Leah Potgieter. 

“This is not about the content of the artwork or the politics. It is about process,” she said. 

She said that a minister should not have the authority to intervene once an independent selection process has been completed. 

“This decision has serious implications beyond a single exhibition. It risks creating a chilling effect on constitutional rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of opinion.”

Potgieter warns that, if a minister can retroactively overturn artistic decisions, then future cultural work supported by the state becomes vulnerable to political interference. 

The DA is, therefore, accusing McKenzie of maladministration, abuse of power, and unlawful, improper prejudice to others. 

Potgieter added that McKenzie’s actions constitute censoring, violating the Constitutional right to freedom of speech. 

“He is not a law unto himself, and he would do well to remember that being in office is not a popularity contest, but a responsibility governed by law,” she said. 

South African artist being used as a proxy to foreign power – McKenzie

Responding to the Daily Maverick article and subsequent media coverage of the cancellation, McKenzie said that these reports constitute “misinformation” around the decision. 

Accused by some media reports of pulling funding for South Africa’s exhibition, McKenzie said that this is not true, as the exhibition pavilion was already paid for before the contract with Art Pavilion was cancelled. 

McKenzie gave his side of the story, arguing that he cancelled the submission because it was being used “as a proxy to a foreign power to endorse a geopolitical message about the actions of Israel in Gaza.”

“Art Periodic undertook to raise funding from the South African private sector to stage an exhibition,” the Minister said. 

“However, when it was brought to my attention that a foreign country has allegedly undertaken to fund South Africa’s exhibition, this was raised as a concern.”

McKenzie said Art Periodic clarified that the foreign country planned to purchase the artworks concerned after the Biennale. 

“This foreign country has its own resources, so why not rent its own space to fund its own message to convey its feelings about Israel and Gaza?” he said. 

He added that the South African Government’s stance on Israel and Gaza has been stated clearly, and that McKenzie has been careful to keep his personal political views out of his job as a politician. 

According to the Minister, the space at the Biennale should be used to promote South African art and artists, and South Africa’s own story, not that of other nations. 

He said he is wary of “artists being paid to become involved in geopolitical narratives that have the potential to cause unneeded division and bring DSAC and my [his] ministry into disrepute.”

“The artists involved in this must come clean about who was paying for this. Even the Daily Maverick journalist was told about this concern, but never mentioned it in his article,” said McKenzie. 

“Presumably because it did not favour the narrative that he was framing against me.”

The artwork at the centre of the controversy is Elegy, a performance piece proposed by Gabrielle Goliath, selected as South Africa’s sole representative for this year’s event. 

Goliath’s work focused on femicide and the killing of LGBTQI+ people in South Africa, and women killed by German colonial forces in Namibia during the Ovaherero and Nama genocide in the early 1900s.

The third section focused on the deaths of women and children in Gaza by the Israel Defence Forces since the war began in 2023.