Patriotic Alliance president Gayton McKenzie at the IEC Results Operation Centre in Midrand on 1 June 2024. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla) 
Adding his voice to the ongoing furore around the signing of the Expropriation Act, Patriotic Alliance (PA) president Gayton McKenzie has said members of the government of national unity (GNU) were “disrespected” by the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa not communicating with GNU partners about the signing of the contentious Expropriation Act.
McKenzie has claimed Ramaphosa “stabbed us in the back” after not informing GNU leaders before signing the Act into law.
He is the latest GNU leader to add his voice to the fallout from the signing of the Act, which was assented into law on Thursday, 23 January.
McKenzie told supporters at a party thanksgiving service at the Crystal Church in Johannesburg on Saturday: “President Ramaphosa disrespected us. This is no way to treat us. He didn’t even have the courtesy to call us. To call the DA, to call the IFP, to call the PA.”
“Those that are scared to tell him. I am here to tell him that you will never treat me like that,” said the first-time minister, adding: “I’m not desperate to be the minister of sports, arts and culture – you can remove me tomorrow.”
The Act guides how and when expropriation can be done. According to the Presidency, this had been a five-year process, with public consultation and parliamentary deliberations.
It has caused a flurry within the GNU since several parties oppose the Act. The second-biggest party in the unity government, the DA, said on Saturday afternoon that it would be calling for a “reset” of the relationship amid the signing of the Act, which it says was done without informing GNU partners.
McKenzie took a similar stance, saying they had not been informed, and questioned where the unity was when “the PA must read in the papers that you’ve signed”.
McKenzie told his audience: “He has stabbed us in the back.”
The minister added: “Ek vertel hom nou: jy sal my nooit so treat nie” (I will tell him now: you will never treat me like this).” The crowd erupted with cheers.
McKenzie said he could not be treated like this because he was an extension of the PA and he couldn’t “allow the Patriotic Alliance votes to be taken for nothing, not even a letter”.
In the 2024 elections the PA received 677,719 votes (2.06%), enough to secure nine seats in the National Assembly. It is the fourth-largest party in the GNU after the ANC, DA and IFP.
Read more: Expropriation Bill: decades in the making, what lies ahead for South Africa?
On Saturday, Daily Maverick reported that DA leader John Steenhuisen had called for a reset of the relations in the GNU, over the signing of the Act, as well as plans for the National Health Insurance.
McKenzie said in his speech: “These ones in the ANC who say remove McKenzie, remove me tomorrow. I will not ever fight you, I will thank you for the opportunity.”
Shaking his head, he added: “Some of you treat me in that Cabinet like you are doing me a favour. Julle speel, ek is ‘n ander Boesman (You play, I’m another Boesman).”
McKenzie said his party supported expropriation, but not right now since it would “destroy the economy of the country”.
He said he was against expropriation without compensation making an example of his unnamed “white friends” who recently bought a farm in the Western Cape for R120-million. These are the same people, he claimed, who handed out food parcels in the Eastern Cape during the Covid-19 pandemic. He made a point that “not all white people” stole land, but bought it.
At the same time, McKenzie said he understood the pain of forced removals and people’s land being taken away. Now, “let us hold hands and move forward”.
He said he wanted to “keep the land until the Khoisan leaders are recognised”. He told his audience that land dispossession did not start in 1652 when the Dutch arrived in the country, but when the Portuguese arrived centuries earlier. Expropriation, he argued, should only take place once Khoisan leaders were fully recognised under the law. DM