McKenzie chooses cricket event over Parly’s audit grilling, deputy and DG also absent

Sport, arts and culture Minister Gayton McKenzie was nowhere to be seen when the Auditor-General told Parliament on Thursday that his department was not keeping proper track of the money it hands out, with fraud confirmed in some cases.

Instead, MPs were told McKenzie had sent his apologies because he was attending the announcement of the match schedule for the 2027 Cricket World Cup, which SA will co-host next year, in Cape Town.

His deputy, Peace Mabe, was also a no-show because of party commitments, director-general Cynthia Khumalo was on a study tour, and acting director-general Vincent Campbell asked to leave early for the same cricket event.

The Auditor-General’s office told the National Assembly’s sport, arts and culture portfolio committee that a follow-up investigation had confirmed fraud by some of the people and organisations the department funds.

“We have noted that the department did continue to experience challenges in ensuring that beneficiaries account adequately for transferred funds,” it told the committee.

“There was confirmation of fraud and misrepresentation by some of the beneficiaries relating to proof of payment documentation.

“The investigation did identify instances of invalid bank account details being submitted, manipulation of payment amounts and also account holder information on proof of payments.”

MK Party MP Gift Motaung asked the Auditor-General’s office whether the meeting was value for money with the minister and director-general absent.

“When we’re dealing with matters like this we really need to have a minister in place, we really need to have a director-general in place,” Motaung said.

“Do you believe this is value for money whenever we’re talking about billions of rand with the entities that the minister is running, and yet you present only to the committee and the acting director-general, the director-general is not here, the minister is attending an event?”

Auditor-General business unit leader Michelle Magerman said her office had already taken McKenzie through the findings.

“Obviously the minister is important, they [need to] come to Parliament and account,” Magerman said.

“I’m sure the reasons are also important, because there are matters that are outside of our control as individuals.”

Committee chair Joe McGluwa asked where the director-general was.

“I’m a little bit concerned with this, where is the DG?” McGluwa said.

Campbell told him Khumalo was travelling.

“I believe she’s on a study tour to look at the music academies,” Campbell said.

Campbell himself dropped off the virtual meeting when EFF MP Eugene Mthethwa asked what the department planned to do about Robben Island Museum, and returned minutes later blaming his laptop.

The Auditor-General’s office said the department spent 99.6% of its R6.3bn budget in 2025/26 but met only 80% of its targets.

It also handed Robben Island Museum, where the late former president Nelson Mandela was jailed for 18 years, an adverse audit opinion, the worst result of the 28 entities that fall under the department.

The office said the museum could not provide supporting documents for various transactions and balances in its books.

It said R839m in irregular expenditure across the department and its entities still had to be investigated, and blamed the slow response by leadership to its recommendations for repeat findings.

“I’m thankful that you mentioned Robben Island. It actually needs a complete independent forensic audit,” McGluwa said.

“This committee must really guard against the closure of that entity due to weak governance.”

It is not the first time the department’s leadership has been missing from the committee.

On June 9, the committee sent the department’s delegation away from a meeting on its fourth quarter performance because no senior official was there to account, and the minister and deputy minister were also absent, Parliament said at the time.

The committee then demanded that the director-general, minister or deputy minister attend future meetings.

The committee will question the department on the audit findings on Friday, and McGluwa asked Campbell to assure MPs that the department would be there in full.

“We will all be in the meeting tomorrow morning,” Campbell said.

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