After spending eight years in jail from age 21 for armed robbery, McKenzie came to prominence in the early 2000s for his role in a prison exposé that eventually led to his early release amid an investigation of prison corruption by the Jali Commission of Inquiry.[2] After his release from jail, he became a businessman, motivational speaker and author. From 2022 to 2023, he served as the Executive Mayor of the Central Karoo District Municipality.[3][4][5] In 2013, McKenzie co-founded the Patriotic Alliance political party and has since served as its president.[6]
Business activities
McKenzie grew up in the Heidedal neighborhood of Bloemfontein, South Africa.[7] He used his story of changing from a life of crime to attaining success as a businessman as the basis for his motivational talks.[8]
He has gone on to work as a consultant in the mining industry and runs a diversified business with interests in several sectors.[9]
Politics
McKenzie launched the Patriotic Alliancepolitical party on 30 November 2013, and became the party's first president. McKenzie, along with long-time friend Kenny Kunene, have become known for using open letters to provoke political debate, cause controversy and attract attention.[10] Kunene left the Economic Freedom Fighters shortly after its formation before helping to launch the Patriotic Alliance.[11]
At the end of April 2014, just more than a week before the elections of 7 May, McKenzie wrote a highly critical open letter to Economic Freedom Fighters president Julius Malema, which gained widespread attention.[12] In the letter and in subsequent interviews, McKenzie referred to Malema as the "biggest threat facing South Africa". This was based partly on the EFF's policies on land expropriation and nationalisation. The primary criticism, however, was focused on the character of Malema himself, whom he accused of not being a real revolutionary, a "false prophet" whose promises would take South Africa to civil war and someone who had "stolen" significant amounts of public money during his political ascent.[12] Malema dismissed the letter as predictable rhetoric prior to an election.[13]
In 2024 Gayton McKenzie was appointed to the position of Minister of Sports, Art and Culture. He promptly pledged his ministerial salary to be donated to a charity that works to recover missing children.[14] Controversially, the charity, The Joslin Smith Foundation, was founded by McKenzie himself only a few weeks prior.[15][16]
Controversies
Alleged corruption
In 2022, then Central Karoo District Municipality mayor, Gayton McKenzie raised R3 million for service delivery at a gala dinner fundraising event in Sandton. The money was never deposited into the municipality's bank accounts.[17] In 2023, Eugene Botha, national head of legal affairs for the Patriotic Alliance and in whose bank account the money was later found, said that the money would be treated as a donation to the Patriotic Alliance and declared to the IEC.[18][19] In 2024, the Western Cape High Court ordered that McKenzie and the law firm linked to Botha, Botha E & Erasmus Y Inc, hand over relevant documents to investigators looking into allegations of corruption.[20]
Gang ties
Gayton McKenzie, a convicted former criminal and 26s gang boss who was jailed for robbery for 17 years, has been alleged to have links to gang members as party leader of the Patriotic Alliance.[21][22]
In 2022, McKenzie was involved in the transfer of Eldorado Park gangster Jermaine Prim from a medium-security to a maximum-security facility; a move described as part of a gang war. In 2024, a Mail & Guardian investigation alleged McKenzie's party is funded by the daughter of slain 27s gang boss William “Red” Stevens; McKenzie denied the claims made in an audio recording by a councillor.[23]
Miss South Africa
In 2024, McKenzie was criticised for his alleged xenophobic and Anti-African comments when he questioned the right of Chidimma Adetshina, who has immigrant parents, to contest the Miss South Africa contest.[24] It later emerged from a Department of Home Affairs investigation that Adetshina's birth was allegedly registered fraudulently in South Africa, a matter the government intended to prosecute, and she then withdrew from the competition.[25][26]
Books
Many of his books have been bestsellers in South Africa, detailing his life of crime and subsequent return to society, politics, and advocacy work.[27][28][29][30][31][32] His works are:
Cilliers, Charles (2007): The Choice: The Gayton McKenzie story. ISBN9780620368162
McKenzie, Gayton (2013): A Hustler's Bible: Words to Hustlers. Johannesburg: ZAR Empire Holdings. ISBN9780620557719
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