Gayton McKenzie is a brash, tactless, foot-in-mouth politician who has no business holding a position as important as sports, arts and culture minister.
Just last month, he broke ranks with the government’s official policy on Israel when he cancelled a South African artwork that had been proposed for the 61st Venice Biennale later in the year because he didn’t like that its content related to the deaths of women and children in Gaza.
Lately, he has taken his extreme form of hatred of the other to deeper levels, telling an American sports agency that he supports US President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration. This through the use of that country’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), which routinely detains people it suspects of being undocumented migrants and has been caught up in controversy over the killing of two Americans protesting its gung-ho policing style in Minnesota.
“I totally agree with ICE and we must do the same here with what they’re doing there,” McKenzie said when interviewed by sports agency Sportsboom.co.za.
“I cannot criticise something that I want in my own country. If you want to go to the World Cup and you have a visa, what problems do you have? If you go through the proper processes of attaining a visa, you will be fine. I won’t be politically correct – viva ICE! I agree with Donald Trump.”
When contacted for comment by this paper, McKenzie meekly tried to separate his role as minister to that of leader of his openly xenophobic party, the Patriotic Alliance, and its “abahambe” signature slogan.
“As leader of the Patriotic Alliance, I support strong and decisive enforcement-led approaches to illegal immigration, including those pursued under president Trump and through ICE, because I believe that sovereign nations have both the right and the responsibility to control their borders, to enforce their laws, and to protect their citizens,” he responded via his party.
That is a cheap cop-out. McKenzie is a minister in the government of national unity. He cannot go around spewing views that contradict the official policy of the administration he serves.
South Africa’s Constitution guarantees equal rights to those who are within its borders. Enforcement of illegal immigration is done through formal arrests and deportation orders, not arbitrarily by heavily armed government militia routinely grabbing people off the streets and shooting dead citizens who rightfully protest such illegal action.
McKenzie has every right to display affection for his hero Donald Trump, but he must never do so while holding one of the highest positions in government.
His myopic views and admiration of a man who regularly lies about our country are the antithesis of everything we stand for as a nation. President Cyril Ramaphosa must show McKenzie the door and free him to lead his xenophobic front unhindered by the decorum of public office.
