Hypocritical for McKenzie to call out racism with history of uttering racial slurs: EFF

JOHANNESBURG - The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said it’s hypocritical for Minister of Sports Gayton McKenzie to call out racism when he himself has a history of uttering racial slurs towards black people.

Over the weekend, old social media posts resurfaced in which McKenzie used several derogatory terms to describe black people.

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This comes just days after McKenzie filed hate speech charges against the Open Chat podcast for making offensive remarks about coloured people.

As the Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader called for action against the Open Chats podcast, he is now facing scrutiny for tweets he posted over ten years ago.

Both the EFF and ActionSA have called for his removal from Cabinet, saying there cannot be a minister with a history of using offensive language toward specific racial groups.

The political organisations contend that McKenzie's statements are not mere slips of the tongue, but rather deliberate remarks intended to cause harm.

In a video message to supporters last week, explaining why he was taking action against the podcasters, McKenzie said he had a zero-tolerance approach to racism in the party, and even dismissed one of its own members for using the K-word.

“I have fired somebody, a pastor actually, on the Cape Flats because he called people K*****. I fired him on the spot.”

ActionSA has now reported Mackenzie to the South Africa Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).