Gayton McKenzie’s vulgar ‘foreigners’ outburst needs to be called out by the GNU he serves

19 May 2025

Gayton McKenzie’s recent xenophobic rant singling out the employment of two Zimbabweans by the Market Theatre is Trumpian in its populist vulgarity.

As the country’s Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie has sworn an oath to the Constitution of South Africa.

Last week, he took the opportunity, while addressing the chairpersons and CEOs of all Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) entities – including museums, theatres and heritage and funding agencies – to unleash a shocking tirade aimed at “foreigners” in South Africa, regardless of their legal status, it appears.

“Some of you here [have] the audacity to hire foreigners instead of South Africans,” he boomed at those gathered.

“I don’t care how you used to do it. But for as long as I am the minister, there will be no foreigner [our italics] that will work in an entity while a South African can do the same thing.”

He ordered that all “foreigners” employed by departments needed to be “out in three weeks”.

“I said it, I want them out, get them out,” he ranted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu_3oCO8Xnw

That none of the other parties in the multiparty Government of National Unity have yet called out McKenzie for his threatening tone and xenophobic rhetoric is a test of the values that bind the GNU.

Leveraging unemployment

Under the guise of addressing South Africa’s shocking unemployment rate, McKenzie singled out the example of two Zimbabweans employed by the Market Theatre, one a personal assistant and the other a handyman. He also singled out a “foreign” driver.

These were not people, said McKenzie, with scarce skills. However, Daily Maverick has ascertained that the handyman and personal assistant were appointed before 2020.

The assistant is married to a South African and has the right to live and work in the country, while the handyman, when employed, had the required legal documents. In other words, they have rights in the country.

McKenzie raved on: “Nothing occupies me more than the foreigners working in your departments. I want them out. Get them out before I get you out.”

Read more: 5 xenophobic myths about immigrants in South Africa debunked by researchers

Now Daily Maverick has seen a letter dated 9 May from McKenzie to the chair and CEO of the Market Theatre following up on “an audit” of “non-South Africans employed by the various entities incorporated under DSAC”.

In the letter, requesting that the paperwork be sent, McKenzie demanded to know how much each employee was paid and “what process was followed to determine that no South African was willing to do eithere (sic) job?”

‘Suicide and riots’

It was at a meeting for the annual ceremony for the Signing of Shareholder Compact where each institution has its annual performance strategy ticked off, that McKenzie chose to let loose his rant. This is significant.

He blamed the suicide rate in South Africa on high unemployment rates, which he said had the potential of causing “massive riots” in this country. He said his aim during his term was to promote the employment of South Africans.

Not a peep about arts and culture in South Africa, and no distinction between naturalised South Africans, those with permanent residence and those who have secured legal documents.

“All foreigners must go.”

Current director of the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KZN, Dr Ismail Mohammed, also a former CEO of the Market Theatre Foundation, who exposed corruption at the institution in 2017, has since hit back at the minister.

‘General xenophobia’

Mohammed spoke out immediately after McKenzie’s attack at the signing ceremony and told Daily Maverick that “the tone and outrageous commentary is synonymous with his general xenophobia”.

Each institution has its annual performance strategy signed off by the DSAC at the event, and McKenzie’s presence at the ceremony was because, as minister, it is he who can hire and fire board members.

McKenzie was issuing executive orders, like Donald Trump.

McKenzie, said Mohammed, had already handpicked chairpersons of boards who would naturally act as his extensions. The minister has no jurisdiction, however, in the hiring and firing of CEOs, as these are appointed by the institutions themselves.

Mohammed said that although the legislation referred to them (chairs) as accounting officers to the DSAC, it was the council that was legally responsible for their performance and contracts.

McKenzie can recommend dismissal, but the boards will have their hands tied as CEOs would be inclined to take the matter to the CCMA or the labour court.

Of course, the correct method of doing this, said Mohammed, would be to give institutions that the minister felt had fallen “foul” of the law 30 days to “regularise the situation”.

This would give everyone time to secure the correct papers for the employees, and for each institution to “draw a progress policy document for the employment of foreigners that is in accordance with the South African constitution”, said Mohammed.

Read more: Lurking xenophobia — Miss SA saga is a blot on our country’s constitutional DNA

Calls for censure

As McKenzie’s tirade began to go viral last week, more and more disgusted artists called for some sort of censure or rebuke from the government. As a member of the Cabinet, McKenzie represents the government, and so does his vulgarity.

McKenzie is known for his xenophobic outbursts and populist sloganeering while out campaigning for the Patriotic Alliance. But as a minister, however, it is not a good look.

Playwright and cultural activist Mike van Graan angrily responded that if McKenzie remained in the Cabinet, “then Nelson Mandela’s speech, ‘Never, never and never again will it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another’ means absolutely nothing.

“We cannot decry Trump and Europe for the racist manner in which they treat Africans and other migrants of colour and not resist Gayton McKenzie with all that we have and demand his immediate removal from government,” said Van Graan. DM

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South Africa

Leveraging unemployment

‘Suicide and riots’

‘General xenophobia’

Calls for censure