Do we like them?Do we like Gayton McKenzie?
Our score: 4 out of 10. Real good on LGBTQ+ inclusion and a remarkable turnaround story, weighed against alleged slurs, hard-line anti-migrant rhetoric and unkept pledges.
McKenzie's backstory is the stuff of films. He grew up poor under apartheid, joined a gang, and says he robbed his first bank at 16. At about 20 he was sentenced to 17 years, and inside he led a gang while secretly recording prison corruption and abuse, which triggered an official investigation. He was paroled after 10 years.
Out of prison he built a seafood distribution business, then moved into mining and nightclubs, and wrote The Hustler's Bible. He founded the Patriotic Alliance in 2013, pitching it as the voice of South Africa's coloured community. It won about 2 per cent and nine seats in 2024, joined the ANC-led coalition, and he became Sport, Arts and Culture Minister that July.
The big stoush came in August 2025, when old social media posts resurfaced in which he allegedly used derogatory language towards black people. The ATM, EFF and DA called for action, and ActionSA reported him to the Human Rights Commission. The commission said the tweets were prima facie breaches of the equality right and moved to take him to the Equality Court, seeking an apology and deletion of the posts. We found no court outcome yet, so it stays alleged.
On the harm check, the picture is split. His party advocates mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, along with the death penalty and conscription, per its manifesto. But on LGBTQ+ people he told his party's policy conference “The LGBTQIA+ community is us, they are part of the PA.” The party adopted a draft inclusiveness policy and created an LGBTQIA+ League. Nothing turned up on his words about women or the climate either way.
Lately it is mostly a pile of complaints about how he runs his portfolio. The DA has taken him to the Public Protector, including over an alleged jobs-for-pals scheme. A Pretoria High Court challenge by the Roadies Association is reportedly trying to set aside a Public Protector report that cleared him. That group's president had earlier alleged McKenzie falsely accused it of embezzling a R20 million grant; no response from McKenzie was reported.
On the good side, pledging his salary to a missing-children charity won him plenty of fans. Daily Maverick found no receipts for his earlier mayoral salary claims and the foundation wasn't registered at the time, though it confirmed he'd put R40,000 into a Kagiso art gallery. The Joshlin Smith Foundation finally launched in March 2026, two years after the girl disappeared. He said nobody held a gun to his head to start it.