/ 20 December 2024

Gayton McKenzie

Funeral Service Of Connie Chiume In South Africa
Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie. (Photo by Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

SCORE: C+


It was a blessing for South Africans and foreign nationals when Gayton McKenzie was named minister of sports, arts and culture instead of home affairs. And it was surprising when the Patriotic Alliance leader acted decisively by pulling the plug on “superfan” funding. Last year, R1.3  million of taxpayers’ money was spent on sending superfans Mama Joy Chauke and Botha Msila to the Rugby World Cup in France. McKenzie deemed that wasteful and said the money should be assigned to school sports and grassroots football, rather than on “celebrity” marketing. He also cut funding to artists who were still holding on to department support for Covid-19. But McKenzie had his own superfandom to account for when it was revealed that a trip to France during the Olympic Games cost more than R800  000. He was subsequently transparent in breaking down the costs of what was mostly government travel. He less elegantly dealt with the controversy of Chidimma Adetshina competing for the title of Miss South Africa. He will say that his “funny vibes” were vindicated, but his goading — which triggered an avalanche of online abuse — was anything but ministerial.

9 Replies to “Gayton McKenzie”

  1. He is nothing but a loudmouth attention seeker.

  2. The minister is worthy of a B.atleast.

  3. Honestly I’m less than impressed with his performance, he needed to do something for creatives and I’ve yet to hear of a substantive plan on how he will broach all the mitigating issues, he’s fantastic at hitting social media but we don’t need an influencer we need a working minister.

  4. Minister MacKenzie,

    Can you intervene in the issues with athletic tracks upgrading and availability in Capetown. Currently only 2 tracks UWC and Green point will be available for 2025. All the rest 7 needs to be upgraded. However the one in Atlantis, Wesfleur Athletic Track is of main concern. In 2010 according to COCT the 20 million for the upgrading was used for 2010 soccer world cup. Then in 2019, June, official plans to upgrade the track with 10 million was in the pipeline. Then COCT stated that the 10 million was used up for covid. Which we want you to encourage the hawks to investigate what really happened with the 10 million. Because the government made funding available to COCT for covid. The electricity is off on the facility for more then 14 years, We don’t use the building inside for more then 18 years, but building is vandalized with a 24 hour security presence.

    Can you please make contact with us.

  5. The singing of the National Anthem ( Nkosi Sikelela I Africa).

    Hon Minister McKenzie, the singing of the National Anthem of SA should be banned at all local soccer games in South Africa.

    I will appreciate it the Hon Minister or someone from your office can get in touch with me so that I provide my reasons, which I believe that many people will agree with.

    • Dear Minister I voted for your party but don’t hear anything you folks doing for pensioners. I am not referring to those pensioners in old age home’s. I think GNU is for those that are connected to certain parties.

  6. When is Gayton going to run a marathon as p RT omised?

  7. I would like to have a personal chat with Mr Mackenzie