Minister Gayton McKenzie under scrutiny for social media posts

Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, who recently dismissed claims of being a racist, has been given until Wednesday to respond to the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which is investigating his "racially-divisive" social media posts from over a decade ago.

On Friday, in a statement, the commission said it has found prima facie evidence that McKenzie's tweets violate the country's equality laws.

This comes as McKenzie recently faced a public backlash after some of the posts he made on X, formerly known as Twitter, between 2011 and 2017 resurfaced, sparking a social media frenzy.

Last week, ActionSA confirmed it had reported McKenzie to the South African Human Rights Commission for repeatedly using hateful Apartheid-era slurs to degrade and dehumanise black South Africans.

The SAHRC said it has opened an investigation into the minister's posts following an outcry and complaints from members of the public.

"Following the assessments 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.

"Thererafter, 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," the Commission said.

Early this month, the leader of the Patriotic Alliance condemned members of the Open Chats podcast who had used derogatory terms in reference to the Coloured community.

As a result, social media users began digging through some of McKenzie's old tweets, allegedly filled with racial slurs against black South Africans.

However, the minister has denied being a racist in a recent video statement. McKenzie also accused his political opponents of a political campaign to tarnish his image, saying," This is a political campaign. The first thing I want to say is that there must be a victim because racism has a victim. Who is the victim? Who did I ever use the K word to? That is the first thing that they must prove."

Professor Tshepo Madlingozi, Associate Professor and the Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits University said, according to the recent Constitutional Court ruling, the use of the K word is demeaning.

"The court has found that the use of the K word is prohibited, and no one has the right to use it, even as a joke or satire. The court has been very clear on the use of the word. When we assessed the posts by Mr McKenzie, we found that even though they were made a long time ago, they violate Section 10 of the Constitution," he said. 

Attempts to get a comment from McKenzie were unsuccessful at the time of publication.

siyabongasithole@inl.co.za