By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) announced on Friday, 15 August 2025, that it has launched an investigation into Minister of Arts, Sports, Culture and Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie for racist remarks.
This comes after ActionSA has asked the SAHRC to investigate McKenzie, with the party’s president, Herman Mashaba, posting: “The more I read what [Gayton McKenzie] says about US, the more angrier I get [sic]. We have been insulted and dehumanised for centuries, brutally so. It is not going to continue under a democratic government. Apology is not good enough.”
Between 2011 and 2017, McKenzie used South Africa’s most offensive racial slur (K-word) in at least six tweets.
McKenzie’s defence is that he was employing the K-word to point out harmful racial attitudes, not validate them. But this argument appears not to be landing among many black South Africans, who argue that as a man who very proudly identifies as coloured, rather than black, McKenzie is not entitled to use the K-word in any context.
The Commission said it became aware of the resurfaced posts on August 9 2025, and has received multiple complaints from various political parties and individuals, prompting the commission to take action.
Following an initial assessment, the SAHRC believes that McKenzie’s utterances are “prima facie violations of the provisions of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (Equality Act), 2000”.
The Commission stated that its next steps might include instituting proceedings in the relevant Equality Court, as per the SAHRC Act of 2013 and the Equality Act.
The SAHRC emphasised that the right to freedom of expression is not absolute, reminding the public that hate speech is explicitly prohibited by both the Equality Act and the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, 2023.
The Commission reiterated that McKenzie’s conduct is expected to “conform to ethical standards that is becoming of a Minister and a member of Parliament”. The SAHRC also called on all citizens to uphold the Constitution’s fundamental principles, including human dignity, equality, and non-discrimination.
McKenzie has stated his willingness to subject himself to an investigation, reiterating, “I can never be guilty of racism, try some other take down but never racism”.
He is no stranger to controversy, recently came under fire when a job in his department was advertised as being only open to the Coloured, Asian and white populations.
He defended this move, saying he was applying the Employment Equity Act and ensuring “all races are represented”, because most of the people in his department were black.
ActionSA said, it welcomes the confirmation by the SAHRC that it is investigating its complaint against McKenzie’s racist social media posts, and its prima facie finding that his deplorable utterances do in fact violate provisions of South Africas equality laws.
In a statement,” the party said, it looks forward to the Commission communicating the next steps in holding the Minister to account. We also urge the SAHRC to furnish an update on the investigation into the Open Chats Podcast regarding repugnant comments made against the coloured community.
Racism must be confronted with consequences, no matter who the perpetrator is or their status in society. It is in this context that we are also awaiting an update on our complaint against Minister Dean Macpherson for his deeply offensive and racially charged attacks on ActionSA supporters, in which he referred to them as “amaphara” and “hobos.”