Gayton McKenzie’s trump card: Populism winning the day for Patriotic Alliance

Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie says his party’s campaign for the upcoming local government elections is “the most important” – and he’s right. Voters will have to decide which parties can provide the capable leadership that is necessary to provide clear direction and stabilise the municipal shambles that coalition governments have inflicted on residents in many cities and towns.

Increasingly, more voters are choosing the PA to represent their interests at a local level. The party has been winning new seats in by-elections across the country and, of course, there’s the drawcard of having the populist, loud-mouth, pro-Israel, anti-foreigner McKenzie at the helm.

The party is in full campaign mode ahead of the elections. In a recent address to supporters on Facebook, McKenzie said the PA needs to run a clean election campaign and not tell lies about other political parties.

“The PA is the party to fear,” he added. And he may not be wrong. In 2025, the PA produced two key shocks in its race for political power: winning seats in the DA strongholds of Drakenstein and Mossel Bay in the Western Cape. It delivered another shock, also in 2025, when it took a ward from the ANC in its stronghold of Soweto.

In one of his Facebook announcements, McKenzie said the PA had dispatched leaders to the provinces to assist with campaigning, which illustrates how big the party’s plans for the local elections are. They include popular MP Ashley Sauls, who went to eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal, and national chairperson Marlon Daniels, who was sent to the Western Cape. McKenzie, who is from Heidedal in Bloemfontein, has been sent to work in the Free State.

Growing from a low base

The PA has come a long way since its formation in 2013. In the 2014 general elections, it gained only about 0.07% of the vote and failed to win any seats. In 2019, it performed even more dismally, dropping to 0.04%.

The 2020 killing of teenager Nathaniel Julius (16) by police in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, led to an influx of support for the party, as it used the crime to highlight the neglect of coloured youth in South Africa. In the municipal elections the following year, the PA received 0.97% of the votes, which garnered it 75 seats across the country, largely in councils in the Western Cape and Northern Cape. Today, it has 97 seats.

The party became a kingmaker in many councils, at first working with the DA in the Western Cape to forge a big enough majority to run them. It also worked with the ANC, leading to McKenzie’s year-long stint as executive mayor in the Central Karoo District Municipality. His time there was controversial as he sought to remove foreign nationals from the Beaufort West area. His promises of fixing swimming pools remained largely unfulfilled.

In the 2024 general election, the PA received the sixth-highest number of votes: 677,719 in total, or 2.06%. These votes came largely from the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng, where it aggressively courted the support of the coloured community. This resulted in the party taking up nine seats in the National Assembly and one in the National Council of Provinces. It also joined the Government of National Unity.

McKenzie became the minister of sport, arts and culture – and a staunch defender of the Ramaphosa government, only differing on issues such as Israel’s acts of genocide in Gaza (the PA and McKenzie are pro-Israel) and the party’s hardline stance on immigration, which seems to be a play on US President Donald Trump’s rhetorical style.

Broadening support

Although this has caused controversy, voters on the ground still seem to flock to the PA. One example is the George municipality in the Western Cape. Since 2021, the PA has gone from one council seat to six after the latest by-elections in January and February. It is now the third-biggest party in the council.

Ahead of the municipal polls, the PA might be the party to watch as it seeks to either win enough seats outright to run councils or play a decisive role.

According to the PA’s national spokesperson, Steve Motale, the objective is to significantly expand its representation in municipal councils across the country.

“Particular attention will be given to municipalities where the PA has demonstrated strong growth in recent by-elections, especially in the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng. Areas such as the Garden Route region, parts of the Cape Metro and key municipalities in Gauteng have shown increasing support for the PA as communities seek alternatives to the traditional political choices,” Motale said.

“There are numerous other places where we will surprise people with our growth, though, including the Free State, Eastern Cape and North West.”

Elections analyst Wayne Sussman told Daily Maverick this week: “Across the board, you are seeing the Patriotic Alliance make deep inroads.”

Although some say it is questionable whether the PA could win outright in a major election instead of taking wards in by-elections, Sussman is confident it could – and says it can match the war chests of parties like the DA and ANC. The party’s supporters, Sussman argues, will feel buoyed because it can “certainly point, unlike any other party right now, that its fortunes, even off its low base, are much better today than they were in 2024 or 2021”.

The importance of the upcoming municipal elections cannot be overstated: control of key metros such as the City of Johannesburg, with its budget in the billions, coupled with a collapse of services, is up for grabs. The PA has 10 seats in the council and its deputy leader, Kenny Kunene, has thrown his hat in the ring for the mayoral race. Kunene is a councillor in Johannesburg and the mayoral committee member for roads and transport.

The PA made its name as a “home for coloured people”, but as it seeks to sustain and increase its voter base, it will need greater support from other racial groups and communities. Will other voters countenance the party and its leader’s populist rhetoric? Will more South Africans vote for the PA despite McKenzie’s less-than-stellar performance as minister of sport, arts and culture?

Motale thinks voters are ready to vote for the PA, saying South African politics is entering a period of significant realignment. “Many voters are reconsidering long-standing political loyalties and looking for parties that demonstrate courage, responsiveness and a clear commitment to improving everyday life. The PA ... believes the upcoming elections will reflect the growing desire among voters for practical leadership and accountability at local government level.”

Questionable performance

Questions have been raised about McKenzie’s lack of investment in arts and culture while focusing heavily on the sport sector. A case in point was his dismissive attitude to South Africa’s writing luminaries when he sent a coterie of his not-quite-literary contacts and a limited number of respected authors to the Havana Book Fair.

McKenzie also makes promises that he appears unable to keep. His announcement that he’d be donating his salary to the Joshlin Smith Foundation has not materialised – the foundation has not even been registered, as highlighted by DA MP Leah Potgieter.

He also, with great fanfare, promised to bring Formula 1 back to South Africa in 2026, but just this week he backtracked at a press conference, admitting the department had underestimated the immense logistical burden of Formula 1.

McKenzie’s cancellation of artist Gabrielle Goliath’s participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale has brought into question his understanding of the constitutional right to freedom of artistic expression, as he cited shifting, contradictory justifications ranging from avoiding “genocide allegations” to since-debunked claims of foreign interference. Eventually, he asserted a purely discretionary, authoritarian right to control what art represents South Africa.

But ahead of the elections, could these issues sway established and potential voters away from the party?

Political scientist Professor Susan Booysen thinks not. “Sadly, in terms of the overall South African psyche, those values and those utterances do find quite an amount of resonance with South African voters, especially marginalised, disadvantaged ­voters who are hoping to get into better employment positions,” she said.

“Many of these so-called coloured voters still feel marginalised, and over many decades … they’ve complained about feeling sandwiched between white and black and not getting enough privileges, advantages, recognition, and they see a person like Gayton McKenzie unapologetically standing up for them and giving them an additional voice.”

Right now, Booysen said, she believes the PA “finds itself in a more favourable position than many other political parties and certainly better than other small political parties”, given its recent by-election wins over the DA and ANC.

George: A case study

During a visit to George, where the PA has recently won three by-elections, many residents expressed support for the PA. The party is a natural choice for many voters. The question remains whether the PA will be able to replicate this countrywide in what will probably be a defining local government election for the party.

Bronwyn Minnaar (30) was clear about whom she would vote for in the election. “I’ll vote for the PA,” said Minaar, a resident of Borcherds, where support for the PA has increased. Asked why, she said: “I see they are making a change.”

Another resident, who has lived in George for 48 years and wanted to be identified only as Anita, said she and her parents had always voted for the ANC. “I grew up with the ANC, my mother and my father were ANC.”

But then, in July last year, her house burnt down. She said when the fire raged, neither ANC representatives nor any from the DA or Cope came to help. “[The PA] supported us with food and those things and clothes,” she said. “I’ll stand for those people.”

Allegations of wrongdoing have not escaped the PA, especially during the highly contested by-elections in George, which took place after three DA ward councillors resigned and joined the PA.

DA Western Cape leader Tertuis Simmers has, in effect, accused the party of busing in supporters and registering them at one address during a recent by-election. He told Daily Maverick the party had reported matters to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

“Illegal registrations, 80 to 90 people, in George. I think it’s the ward 26 or ward 27 by-election, where the candidate of the PA lived. Eighty-five new people were registered, but there’s only one dwelling. It’s not an informal settlement. I personally went to see how the house looks, and the IEC couldn’t do a thing.”

He said the IEC asked for proof, which the DA provided. In response to the DA claims, Michael Hendrickse, the IEC’s provincial electoral officer for the Western Cape, told Daily Maverick that it had “investigated a section 15 voters’ roll objection” in terms of the Electoral Act, but rejected it.

“The commission investigated the claims and found that the voters were correctly registered, but were geo-coded incorrectly, which caused the confusion. An objection raised regarding the registration of one of the candidates in the by-election on 11 February 2026 was dismissed by the commission,” he said.

Motale also rejected any suggestion of irregular conduct involving voter registrations. “Allegations of this nature tend to surface during competitive election periods... The PA remains confident that our support is genuine and reflects the democratic choices of voters.”

McKenzie is not shy about his presidential ambitions. When he resigned in 2023 as mayor of the Central Karoo District Municipality, he said: “I will run for president in 2024.” But could he and the PA make it, on their own, to the Union Buildings?

Booysen is sceptical. “According to that natural identity, community feeling that comes with a party like the PA, they can do much better than they are doing at the moment, but I would definitely not say [the PA would go] right to the top.” DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.