GAYTON McKenzie is facing calls to fired as Sports, Arts and Culture Minister.
McKenzie is being accused by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), ActionSA and the African Transformation of using the K-word.
McKenzie made headlines last week when he and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) brought criminal charges against the Open Chats podcast for claiming that coloureds are incestuous and are ‘crazy”.
However, the EFF called this move hypocritical after pointing out McKenzie’s use of the K-word in a string of tweets dating back to 2011.
In one of his posts, he criticised the term ‘Black Diamond’ and “Tenderpreneurs” as replacing the k-word as a slur.
In another, he said the slurs were used by coloureds as solely “descriptive” terms.
In response, the EFF called for the immediate removal of Gayton McKenzie as Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture for his history of hateful, racist Remarks
An EFF statement said: “It is also the height of hypocrisy for McKenzie to demand accountability from others when he himself harbours the same hateful attitudes.
“Recently, when podcasters on Open Chats made offensive remarks about coloured people — calling them “incestuous” and “crazy” — McKenzie expressed outrage, opened a case against them, and demanded a public apology.
“While he was right to be offended by prejudice directed at his community, this double standard strips him of any moral or ethical standing to lead on issues of non-racialism and social cohesion.
“Leaving him in office sends the message that the government condones such racism.”
The African Transformation Movement (ATM), meanwhile, lodged a complaint against McKenzie to the Presidency, Parliament, and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests.
ATM parliamentary leader Vuyo Zungula said: “(The) tweets employ language steeped in historical racism, the same kind of degrading rhetoric used to strip black people of their humanity during apartheid and colonial eras.”
The complaint asks Parliament’s ethics bodies to determine whether the remarks breach the Constitution, the Executive Members’ Ethics Act, and the Parliamentary Code of Conduct, and to consider removing McKenzie from his ministerial post. It argues that his continued tenure undermines his office and Parliament.
Meanwhile, ActionSA has reported McKenzie to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for the racist remarks he made, which included the use of outdated and degrading slurs from the Apartheid era.
However, McKenzie wrote on his X account saying that: “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.”
