Human rights body's sights firmly on Mckenzie over K-word posts

SPORTS, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie has until Wednesday to respond to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) regarding offensive tweets, including the use of the K-word.

The Commission confirmed it had launched an investigation after receiving multiple complaints from political parties, among them ActionSA and individuals. The complaints relate to social media posts containing the K-word made by McKenzie nearly a decade ago, as well as alleged xenophobic remarks.

“Following assessment of the contents, the Commission is of the view that utterances made by Minister McKenzie are prima facie violations of the provisions of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (Equality Act), 2000. Consequently, the Commission has sent an allegation letter to Minister McKenzie. Thereafter, the Commission will determine the best way forward which may include instituting proceedings in the relevant Equality Court as per section 13(3)(b) of the South African Human Rights Commission Act 40 of 2013 (SAHRC Act), read with section 20 of the Equality Act, 2000,” the SAHRC said.  

“The Commission wishes to remind members of the public that the right to freedom of expression is not absolute. Hate speech is prohibited in terms of the Equality Act, and the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, 2023.”

ActionSA welcomed the SAHRC investigation, with its MP Alan Beesley, saying: “We maintain that South Africa cannot have a sitting Cabinet Minister who holds such views, whether past or present, without being held to account.”  

Human rights activist, Tauriq Jenkins explained the word is derived from the Arabic term, which means unbeliever or imposter and was “redeployed during the apartheid era as a derogatory term”. 

“We need to see through a historic lens, where we are sitting now, there has to be a deeper appreciation in terms of why our collective humanity needs to be held together with the utmost decency and respect. When we talk about being unified in our diversity, it does not mean saying any derogatory terms, it's about the care of language use. Such terms have no place in our society. If you have a society where it's now ok to use these terms we are basically regressing and we run the risk of undermining the human rights gains we’ve made as a society,” said Jenkins. 

Stellenbosch University Department of Political Science Professor Amanda said while people’s attitudes can change.

“He is now a minister in government. They are the keepers of the constitution and the constitution is very clear on what non-discrimination is on the grounds of race and gender and what hate speech is. If a minister has those kinds of attitudes, it is in conflict with the constitution.”

McKenzie has denied allegations of racism, calling it an orchestrated political campaign against him. 

“In my life, I have never called anyone the K-word. This campaign is driven by the EFF and influencers. Could you show me the people I called the K-word? Please bring them to me. 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,” he previously said. 

McKenzie’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the SAHRC investigation by deadline.

Cape Times