South African Minister not packing his bags

Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance (PA) will stay in the Government of National Unity (GNU), as well as all other coalitions in the country.

In a Facebook live address on Tuesday night, 30 September, party deputy Kenny Kunene and PA national chairperson Marlon Daniels gave an update on their talks with the African National Congress (ANC).

Among the ANC delegates in the meeting were Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero.

“There were proposals on the table for Gauteng. The meeting went very well. We are very excited, very happy,” Kunene said the live.

“This meeting has put to bed the issue of the resignation of [McKenzie as minister], or us withdrawing him from coalitions. The proposals made sense and we are quite excited.”

During a Facebook live last week, McKenzie said that he and his party would exit all coalitions with the ANC, locally, provincially and nationally, if Morero did not reappoint Kunene as Transport MMC.

Kunene had resigned after being at the home of criminal mastermind and murder accused Katiso “KT” Molefe when the Hawks came to arrest him.

A report by law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, commissioned by the PA, cleared Kunene, who was re-sworn in as a councillor on 26 September. 

Morero reportedly wanted to give the job to EFF councillor Dr Mgcini Tshwaku, which the PA was unhappy about.

They wanted Kunene’s temporary replacement, Liam Jacobs, to ascend to the position, but that never occurred.

McKenzie made a threat of leaving coalitions in a detailed letter to supporters, citing repeated disputes with ANC coalition partners that, he says, left the PA sidelined. “We have been pushed too far,” he wrote.

Kunene said that although they initially thought the negotiations with the ANC would be about Johannesburg, they expanded to proposals relating to Ekurhuleni, Emfuleni, the West Rand and Tshwane.

According to reporting from the Daily Maverick, Kunene’s reappointment is set in stone.

He said that the proposals will be discussed with McKenzie and the PA’s NEC, with a final announcement of the details of the deal expected by the end of the week.

Daniels said that “we’ve got homework to do as the Patriotic Alliance. It wasn’t just one agenda item at which they came with. We took advantage of this opportunity to meet with leadership of the African National Congress.”

He said that an NEC meeting is going to take place because “there is a lot more than we bargained for.”

The PA is in key coalitions with the ANC nationally, provincially and locally.

After the 2024 elections, McKenzie was given a ministerial position in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet, while in Gauteng, they hold an MEC position in Lesufi’s cabinet.

In Johannesburg, the PA holds a relatively small but strategically crucial number of swing vote seats.