Gayton McKenzie – from ex-gangster to South Africa’s sports and arts minister

A former gangster and financial institution robber who became a nightclub proprietor and opposition politician, Gayton McKenzie has now risen to turn into South Africa’s minister of sports, arts and tradition.

President Cyril Rampahosa appointed Mr McKenzie – the chief of the Patriotic Alliance (PA) – to the portfolio within the multi-occasion authorities that he introduced on Sunday after his African National Congress (ANC) misplaced its parliamentary majority within the 29 May election.

A prolific tweeter, the 50-year-od relished his appointment, posting a photo of himself putting on football boots and, with a contact of humour, typed: “Thank you for all the well wishing messages, I will reply shortly I’m just busy getting ready, I have work to do 🥅 ⚽️.”

For Mr McKenzie’s admirers, his appointment is the newest signal of how he overcame adversity to obtain success. He robbed his first financial institution earlier than he turned 16, then turned, as he put in an interview with a local radio station, a completely fledged gangster, spent seven years in jail, and vowed to change after his launch.

“I might have had 12 rand in my pocket but I had billion rand in my mind. And that is what people do not understand – they concentrate on what they lack instead of how to get what they lack,” he said in a 2013 interview with public broadcaster SABC.

He turned a extremely paid motivational speaker, received books about his life printed, together with A Hustler’s Bible, and ventured into various businesses – from mining in Zimbabwe to nightclubs in South Africa – with Kenny Kunene, his soulmate from prison.

Mr Kunene earned the nickname “Sushi King” after he had sushi served on the bodies of women clad only in their underwear at his 40th birthday bash on the Zar Lounge nightclub in an upmarket suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa’s principal metropolis.

The nightclub subsequently shut, as did a department in Cape Town registered in Mr McKenzie’s identify following authorized motion over alleged unpaid hire and electrical energy, in accordance to the IOL information website.

“I’m not in interested in clubbing. I’m busy with other projects. We killed the Zar brand – there are no future plans [for Zar],” Mr McKenzie was quoted as saying at the time.

These days, Mr McKenzie is best often called a politician, having launched the PA in 2013, with Mr Kunene, as his deputy.

More than a decade later, the occasion gained 2% of the nationwide vote and fared higher in elections for the provincial authorities within the Western Cape, getting 8%.

Its assist got here primarily from coloureds, as folks of blended-race are identified in South Africa.

The PA’s signature slogan is “Ons baiza nie”, an Afrikaans phrase which loosely interprets as “We are not scared”. Afrikaans is broadly spoken within the colored group, which makes up round 8% of South Africa’s inhabitants.

“For the first time there is coloured people also going to parliament through the Patriotic Alliance. We are the only party that takes all races to parliament,” Mr McKenzie stated, after the outcomes had been introduced.

Political analyst Kagiso Pooe instructed the BBC that Mr McKenzie had a “bravado” type, which appeals to his constituency.

“People want to believe and see someone that comes from their type of background and isn’t shy to say, ‘This is who I am.’ You see it with people like President Zuma, President Trump and other such personalities,” he stated.

Mr McKenzie’s marketing campaign in opposition to undocumented migrants was a vote-winner for him, the analyst added.

“Unfortunately, mainstream politicians and parties have shied away from this and he tackles it directly.”

Mr McKenzie’s critics denounced his marketing campaign as xenophobic. He waged it underneath the slogan “Mabahambe”, which is Zulu for “They must leave” – and, in a publicity stunt, he visited the border with Zimbabwe to thrust back folks making an attempt to enter South Africa.

He was additionally accused of hypocrisy, as his critics identified that within the 2013 SABC interview he described immigrants from different components of Africa, together with Zimbabwe, as an “integral” a part of South Africa’s economic system, whereas “the problem with us is, black people I’m talking about here, we are lazy”.

As Mr Ramaphosa started negotiations over the formation of a coalition authorities, Mr McKenzie publicly stated that he wished his deputy to run the house affairs ministry, which is in command of immigration.

He sought the police ministry for himself as he stated his earlier life as a gangster meant he was in a superb place to deal with South Africa’s excessive crime price.

“None of them [other politicians] are outfitted to cope with the mafias, with the homicide charges we’re seeing. South Africa wants me,” he was quoted as saying by the TimesLive news site.

He was unperturbed when he failed to get the submit, saying he had in actual fact requested for the sports ministry in “off-the-document” negotiations with the ANC.

“Sport can be utilized to change youngsters’s lives. A toddler in sport is a toddler out of court docket,” he stated.

“There’s one promise I’ve made: I’ll make spinning [of cars] one of many greatest sports on this nation,” he added in a stay Facebook submit.

Car spinning is a recognised motorsport in South Africa – it includes automobiles being pushed in circles and a driver climbing out to carry out stunts.

But there are a lot of unregulated occasions and as IOL sports journalist John Goliath wrote, stigma nonetheless surrounds it as lots of people within the colored, Indian and black townships typically do spinning within the streets, which is considered as harmful.

“The spinning of tyres began within the townships as a ritual to honour fallen gangsters through the apartheid period,” he stated.

Mr McKenzie has promised to make it potential for automobile spinning to happen in a protected surroundings, and to assist to hold younger folks away from gangsterism and medication.

“The spinners shall be recognised,” he stated, including: “When a boy has an interest in cars, he doesn’t have time for drugs. He just worries about his car.”

But Mr Ramaphosa’s resolution to give Mr Mckenzie a seat in his cupboard is politically dangerous, as he’s on the centre of an investigation ordered by the Western Cape authorities, which is managed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), a fierce political rival of the PA.

Until final yr, Mr McKenzie was the mayor of Central Karoo, and was accused of failing to account for 3m rand ($161,000, £127,000) raised at a glitzy gala dinner in 2022 to enhance public companies, together with repairing swimming swimming pools and changing bucket bogs.

According to native media, a court docket ordered him final month – simply weeks earlier than his promotion to the cupboard – to declare sure monetary data to investigators.

While the PA described the ruling as “flawed”, the DA welcomed it, saying Mr McKenzie would “soon learn that corruption does not pay off”.

The DA stored up the stress by picketing final week within the small city of Beaufort West, which is a part of Central Karoo, to demand solutions concerning the cash.

Mr McKenzie said in a post on X that he supposed to go to the world to give “feedback”.

“The truth shall come out. I have nothing to hide,” he stated, including: “Lies have short legs.”