ActionSA has reported sport, arts and culture Minister Gayton McKenzie to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) over a series of resurfaced tweets in which he repeatedly used racial slurs dating back more than a decade.
The move follows McKenzie’s own decision to open a criminal case against podcasters from the controversial Open Chats episode, in which two young men made derogatory remarks about black people. At the time, McKenzie called the comments “vile” and vowed to act in defence of the dignity of Coloureds.
But on Friday, X users quickly unearthed McKenzie’s past posts from as far back as 2011, in which he used the K-word multiple times to describe black people.
Critics accused him of hypocrisy and double standards, questioning how he could condemn racism against Coloureds today while having once used similar language against black people.
Haunted by his past
ActionSA’s parliamentary representative Alan Beesley said his party could not ignore the minister’s history.
“ActionSA has reported Minister Gayton McKenzie to the South African Human Rights Commission for racist remarks in which he repeatedly used hateful slurs from the Apartheid era, along with other offensive references that served to degrade and dehumanise black South Africans,” Beesley said in a statement.
Beesley said his party was fully behind the condemnation of the Open Chats episode, but are stunned at McKenzie’s past tweets.
“Earlier this week, ActionSA joined South Africans in condemning vile and repugnant remarks directed toward the Coloured community. Today, we do the same in confronting racism in all its forms by holding a sitting Cabinet Minister accountable for comments that no reasonable person can defend as anything other than racist and demeaning,” he added.
Beesley said the party would follow the SAHRC process but was “fully prepared to independently institute proceedings at the Equality Court” if necessary. He also confirmed that ActionSA had lodged a complaint against Minister of Public Works and InfrastructureDean Macpherson “for his deeply offensive and racially charged attacks on ActionSA supporters, referring to them as ‘amaphara’ and ‘hobos.’”
McKenzie has dismissed the backlash over his old tweets, saying they have been misinterpreted and insisting he has always fought for unity between black and coloured South Africans.
“This whole campaign to find something racist I ever said is hilarious because you have now gone 13 years back and can’t bring out one racist thing I ever said. I always and still fight that Coloureds and Blacks are one people being treated differently – mistakenly,” he said.
