{"id":10236,"date":"2025-08-10T12:10:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T12:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/?p=10236"},"modified":"2025-08-10T12:14:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T12:14:41","slug":"gayton-mckenzies-old-k-word-posts-time-capsule-meets-facepalm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/?p=10236","title":{"rendered":"Gayton McKenzie\u2019s Old \u2018K-Word\u2019 Posts: Time Capsule Meets Facepalm\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In an act that reads like an epic scriptwriting fail, Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie finds himself at the centre of yet another controversy\u2014as if he\u2019s collecting scandal souvenirs. This time, the latest archival ugliness to resurface isn\u2019t an adventure in gangster redemption but rather statements steeped in racism, complete with apartheid-era slurs. ActionSA has promptly reported him to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), and they\u2019re also eyeing the Equality Court\u2014for extra drama and accountability. ActionSA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if that weren\u2019t enough to ruin a Tuesday, McKenzie is also reeling from a union-led backlash over a job advertisement issued by his department. It offered preferences to “Coloured males and females, Indian males and females, and white males,\u201d while black South Africans were conspicuously absent from the shortlist\u2014which, to state the obvious, is not a great look in a democracy. GIWUSA, a key labour union, demanded that McKenzie be sacked, labeling the ad \u201ccrudely racist,\u201d and threatened legal action unless a prompt apology and policy revision followed. IOL+1<\/a>Conviction<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKenzie, never one to back down gracefully, responded with what might go down in political folklore as \u201cthe goggle-worthy clapback.\u201d On social media, he explained that he<\/strong> simply refused to lead a department that was \u201cso unrepresentative of society,\u201d proudly noting that among 586 staff members, 531 are African, with only 19 Coloured, 4 Indian, and 32 White employees. Then, in a line that\u2019ll be quoted for sheer audacity, he told his critics to\u2014brace yourselves\u2014\u201cgo boil somewhere else.\u201d Cape Argus<\/a>SowetanLIVE<\/a>IOL<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, human rights lawyers chimed in, urging McKenzie to resign within 14 days and retract his inflammatory posts. They have called for a full investigation by the SAHRC, warning that failure to comply could result in legal proceedings for constitutional violations. Conviction<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a perfect storm of tone-deaf messaging, McKenzie manages to play both victim and provocateur. His job ad scandal is not just a bureaucratic misstep it\u2019s like trying to fix a leaky faucet by pouring petrol on the house. Meanwhile, his rhetorical belt-and-suspenders approach to racial \u201crepresentation\u201d could be described as anything from bewildering to bizarre. Still, we must admit: his ability to keep controversy alive borders on artistic. Cari zaligste, Minister of Mayhem<\/em> is back in the headlines\u2014again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an act that reads like an epic scriptwriting fail, Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie finds himself at the centre of yet another controversy\u2014as if he\u2019s collecting scandal souvenirs. This time, the latest archival ugliness to resurface isn\u2019t an adventure in gangster redemption but rather statements steeped in racism, complete with apartheid-era […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_25071586472533619_109551237394069":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[602],"tags":[329,328],"class_list":["post-10236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-newsroom","tag-current-affairs","tag-gayton-mckenzie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10241,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236\/revisions\/10241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}