Yellow card for Sport Minister Gayton McKenzie and his delivery problems

It’s been more than a year since the Government of National Unity (GNU) was initiated in South Africa. Along with it came a new Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture in the form of Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie. 

McKenzie took over from Zizi Kodwa, a man with a silver tongue who delivered little, if anything. Among Kodwa’s promises was professionalising women’s sport, particularly soccer and netball, which didn’t come to fruition. 

Kodwa’s year-long stint ended last year when he resigned in June after being implicated in corruption charges, allegedly for accepting bribes. 

In his place, a man with a tongue embellished in even more silver, and dishing out even more promises, replaced him.

McKenzie has attended multiple sporting events, which is not a crime in itself. Hugging sporting stars and grabbing selfies with them projects the image of the nation’s No 1 fan, and of a leader who will get things done for athletes. So far, that has not materialised.

McKenzie has, on a few occasions, placed the cart before the horse — something he has been criticised for by his department’s oversight committee.

Read more: Gayton McKenzie causes chaos in cultural sector, reneging on promises of support

The Paris Olympic Games rolled around less than a month after McKenzie’s appointment, an event he attended — and was criticised for over the R800,000 cost of the trip. 

But where his fast-talking came back to bite him was when he promised South African javelin thrower Jo-Ané du Plessis (née Van Dyk) a full reimbursement on the expenditure she and her parents made in her preparations for the Games. 

This came after the silver medallist had not been funded by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) before the quadrennial event.

“I can promise you, we are going to make sure we give her father his money back,” were McKenzie’s words at the time. “I commit here today that the money the father put himself into debt for – I’m told – I commit publicly that the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture should give him his money back because that investment paid off.”

Those words were uttered in August last year. In September, McKenzie backtracked and said there had been a  “miscommunication” and that he would not reimburse Du Plessis or her parents. McKenzie’s tenure began with big promises, and so far, their emptiness has been consistent. 

VAR dreaming

One such promise is the inception of the video assistant referee (VAR) in top-flight South African soccer. It was among the commitments McKenzie made after becoming minister, saying South African sport should keep up with global trends. 

“Yes, it will be expensive, but we cannot put a price on fairness and progress,” he said. “This is an investment in the future of South African football.” 

In his initial statements, McKenzie announced that VAR would be implemented in April 2025 – well ahead of the new Premier Soccer League season. 

That month came and went as the 2025/26 Premier Soccer League season began – without VAR. Only in August did McKenzie’s department offer a solid update on the matter, saying that it had set aside R82-million towards the implementation of the technology.  

“The nation is eagerly awaiting the delivery of this system, especially as we continue to see questionable decisions by referees during matches. The department remains fully supportive and looks forward to continued collaboration with the South African Football Association and the PSL,” McKenzie said.

Criticism

The move has been met with much criticism. Parliamentary sport committee chairperson Joe McGluwa of the Democratic Alliance (DA), was particularly critical of setting so much money aside for VAR (among other projects), while slashing government funding to sports federations.

“Diverting grassroots money to massive vanity projects in the sports space, with expensive bids, secrecy and confidential deal elements will risk a looting frenzy for insiders,” McGluwa said.

“For sport to flourish and for SA to remain competitive, we need grassroots sport development support – funding, capacitating and resourcing. Not strangling them in favour of massive international bids, games and races,” McGluwa said. 

McKenzie’s interest in the PSL and VAR is not coincidental. His son Calvyn Le John owns a team, Siwelele, in South Africa’s top league. 

Le John bought the status of SuperSport United ahead of the current season, thus partially fulfilling a promise made by the minister to resurrect Bloemfontein Celtic.

The history-laden team faded out in 2021 due to financial difficulties, something which McKenzie said did not sit well with him, because of his Bloemfontein roots. However, Le John could not acquire Celtic rights, hence the Siwelele alternative. 

Motorhead minister

The minister is clearly a lover of cars and speed – another of his promises revolves around bringing Formula One back to South African shores. The last time South Africa hosted the marquee motorsport event was back in 1993. McKenzie has made it his mission to end this drought.

Although it remains a work in progress, the road to this promise being fulfilled is looking much more promising. At the beginning of September, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni announced that the Cabinet is fully behind the bid to bring the event back to South Africa.

“If successful, it will continue to create jobs and economic development as we prepare to host,” Ntshavheni said. “The mere granting of an opportunity for South Africa to bid for the prestigious Formula One Grand Prix is an affirmation of South Africa as an important world actor.”

While McKenzie’s Formula One dream is now dependent on the approval of the organisers of the event, his pledge to professionalise the motorsport of spinning will be a bit more difficult to realise.

Even by global standards, spinning is a small sport. As such, it will be a tough task to garner the resources required to realise McKenzie’s dream of seeing the adrenaline-driven sport become professional.

But as McKenzie has shown with VAR, he is not afraid to repurpose funds to create resources when they are absent.       

Swimming saga

An ongoing theme in McKenzie’s promises is his quest for accountability. 

“There will be severe consequences, hold me to that,” he told Daily Maverick at the beginning of the year, referring to Swimming South Africa’s (SSA’s) executive members serving terms longer than stipulated in its constitution. 

“As far as swimming is concerned, I’m coming there like a thunderstorm,” McKenzie said at the time. 

SSA has had several executive committee members, including president Alan Fritz, vice-president Jace Naidoo, vice-president Zikie Molusi and treasurer John Ellis exceeding the constitutionally stipulated maximum three-term service. 

However, there was no thunderstorm – instead, a gentle ripple on a pond. Earlier this year, Sascoc – with the assistance of its attorneys – announced that no action would be taken as the constitutional change (in 2018) to limit the number of terms an executive member could hold office would not be done in retrospect.

This meant that all terms completed before 2018 would be ignored. 

It was a strange ruling and hardly in line with the “consequences” promised by McKenzie. Instead, it’s business as usual.

So far, in his 15 months in charge of a country with endless sporting potential, the minister has been all hat and very few cattle, allowing his charisma and silver tongue to write cheques he’s unable to cash. DM