Just days before this year’s Two Oceans Marathon in April, a catastrophic storm landed on the Western Cape province.
An estimated 1500 people were left homeless in Cape Town and surrounding areas as the storm ripped through the province, accompanied by winds moving at speeds of over 130 km/h.
I arrived in Cape Town for a meeting the day before the marathon, and to my amazement, the weather was beautiful. The air was pure and the top of Table Mountain was a significant sight for the two days I was there.
Restoring things to natural order
What I have since learned about storms is that despite their disruption, they come to restore things to their natural order.
I consider Gayton McKenzie’s entry into the embattled Sport, Arts and Culture ministry a necessary storm in a department that is so important to this country. One can certainly agree that there is much room for improvement in getting his point across.
Here is a department that literally holds national unity and the dreams of young and emerging artists and sports stars in its hands. However, it and its subsidiary organisations have been mismanaged over the course of several ministers.
None have been bold enough to challenge the powerful structures that oversee our sporting codes and those in the arts.
Causing chest pains
Since his recent appointment as sports minister, McKenzie is seemingly causing certain individuals in the high echelons of his department to have chest pains.
He is not only asking questions about where the money went or where it is currently going to. The minister wants to see who facilitated what deal and the value accrued to the department to enable it to do its work.
He went and published a list of artists who benefited from millions that were paid to them by the Department from its Covid-19 relief fund last week.
McKenzie published this list as his response to some artists apparently complaining about the lack of funding and support from the department.
Since then, the minister has made many more moves and similarly scoffed at his detractors, insisting that he will not be deterred from doing his job.
Warranted perfect storm
What we are seeing represents many of the elements that come together to create the perfect storm. The kind that is warranted in the department.
This is also true for subsidiary organisations that are tasked with looking after the well-being of artists and sports personnel.
These bodies have, in the past, instead been run as fiefdoms of a few, to the detriment of the entire country and the livelihoods of those who rely on the good administration of those in power.
It is good that a shakeup is taking place because once the storm has passed, things will return to their natural order. All the junk will be removed, and many will jump ship in the weeks to come to avoid accountability.
Herein lies the opportunity for the minister. To familiarise himself with the core issues that his department needs to focus on in better delivering its mandate.
Creating fruitful alliances
He can fast-track this by forming a mastermind alliance with knowledgeable people in the arts and culture space.
There exists a wealth of knowledge and people who can and are willing to add great depth, value and a sense of sincere purpose to addressing issues of much-needed transformation in our creative arts space.
This is also true for our major sporting codes, where power plays and corruption dominate boardroom dealings, rather than conversations directed at the future of those in whom we trust to bring glory to our flag when representing the nation across the globe.
What I have observed about McKenzie and his deputy president at the Patriotic Alliance, Kenny Kunene, is that they are lions that eat meat.
Wherever they land, controversy is sure to follow. This makes people uncomfortable. But such is the nature of the beast.
Making people uncomfortable
For the purposes of a success story to be told, McKenzie needs to build the kind of sincere public trust that will pull him through to a vision that will outlast his tenure in the ministry.
He will also need to heed the call for a sense of compassion that some sectors are yearning for, and this can only come through understanding.
The understanding required can only be attained through critical feedback and the humility to not only listen, but also to be diligent in future actions and how they are communicated.
This particular window is opportune for the minister because he has no comrade to please. Neither does he have any existing expectations to honour where underhanded deals have been done.
The minister needs to surround himself with trusted people who truly have the department’s transformative agenda burned into their consciousness.
These are the people who will help channel his focus and energy towards achieving lasting change and giving hope of a future to upcoming stars.
