I look forward to embarrassing the SAHRC — McKenzie

Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie, known for his bold and outspoken nature, has frequently criticised others for exhibiting racist behavior. However, he is now involved in accusations of racism, which he strongly denies.

Nonetheless, old social media comments by McKenzie, including where he used the k-slur, a highly offensive term for Black people, have sparked a political controversy.

In a statement on 20 August, the Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader responded to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which said that it had found “prima facie violations of the Equality Act.”

McKenzie said that he believes that the SAHRC’s utterances and media statements amount to “defamation, because they said these things before giving me a hearing, and without completing even a cursory investigation of any kind.”

He added that he believes that there has been a “weaponisation of the SAHRC” and “looks forward to embarrassing” them if it ends up in court.

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, SAHRC Commissioner Professor Tshepo Madlingozi said that the k-word slur has been deemed unlawful in the country.

“The use of the k-word has been declared unlawful, to quote the constitutional court, ‘those words are completely unutterable,’ whether it is a joke or as hyperbole,” he said.

As a result, the commission has sent an allegation letter to McKenzie. After receiving a response, it says it will determine the best way forward, which may “include instituting procedures in the Equality Court.”

The SAHRC wants the minister to delete the offensive posts and issue a public apology, among other demands.

Corrective action against him could include me being sent for “diversity and sensitivity training” and a payment to a non-profit organisation as “compensation for harm caused”.

McKenzie’s response

McKenzie believes that the SAHRC “effectively released preliminary findings, even suggesting what the penalties could or should be,” making itself “the prosecutor, the judge, the jury, the sentencer and the executioner.”

He argued they had “investigated nothing, questioned nothing and cross-examined nothing,” relying instead on “what social media and rival politicians told them I did.”

Without contacting him, they were “already convinced enough of my evident ‘hate speech’ to go public about it,” alleging double standards after its dropped “kill the boer” hate speech case.

McKenzie said the SAHRC’s public comments “pales into insignificance…against the public harm” they caused him.

He said he was “forced” to go public in his defence because the SAHRC “decided to rather first play to the gallery and try me in the court of public opinion” instead of giving him a fair hearing.

He claimed the SAHRC “has joined itself to a political campaign against” him, co-opted by ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba.

In response, ActionSA said it has no campaign against McKenzie, saying that it acts on principle and has consistently addressed similar misconduct, citing past complaints against Minister Dean Macpherson.

Additionally, he accused the Commission of being politicised, promoting “an anti-Gayton McKenzie smear campaign,” without the other side being heard.

McKenzie argued that his tweets were “seen in isolation and in a false light,” disfiguring “both their meaning and their intent.”

While he said he is “not averse to deleting any tweets” causing public confusion, he criticised the SAHRC’s proposed remedies as “arrived at far too prematurely,” with “punishments…already being contemplated before I could even be asked for my side.”

The Sports, Arts and Culture minister accused SAHRC chairperson Chris Nissen of failing “to hold himself up to the high standards expected” and of allowing “the prejudicial weaponisation of the SAHRC.”

Nissen, McKenzie said, is permitting the Commission to act as the “Witch-Hunter-in-Chief of South African society,” turning it “into a convenient weapon for politicians.”

He appealed to Nissen “to urgently change direction…before this matter becomes any uglier than it already is.”