There’s no humility in demanding Kunene’s reinstatement. Gayton’s Patriotic Alliance hustled its way into the Cabinet and it will hustle to stay there.
Author Mandy Wiener shared on her Radio 702 show about how, in writing her latest book, The Deal, she interviewed Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) president, Gayton McKenzie.
He tells a self-deprecating story about meeting the ANC about being part of the government of national unity (GNU) after the 2024 general election.
The minister of sports, arts and culture makes it clear that he did not walk into the negotiations with a set of demands for the humbled ANC, which had to grovel to parties it never needed to form a government.
McKenzie and his relatively new kid-on-the-block PA had become the kingmakers, a title which had previously given the EFF and some other smaller parties the power to demand big concessions from the ANC.
McKenzie says: “I never demanded to be made minister” but as the beautifully told story goes, he made it clear that the ANC could not give him a “VW Citi Golf when it had given others a Lamborghini”.
Merely a year later, the demonstration of humility and self-effacement that was put on at the GNU negotiation is no longer evident. That is because it was put on for show.
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McKenzie’s bosom buddy, Kenny Kunene, was caught with his pants down at the scene of the arrest of one of the people who are allegedly part of a syndicate of criminals that KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleges have undue influence on politicians.
On the night Katiso “KT” Molefe was arrested, police found Kunene, the then member of the mayoral committee for transport in Joburg, at the scene.
McKenzie then took the nation into his confidence through one of his now regular live Facebook posts to explain that his party, the kingmakers that are not in it for positions and demands, would allow Kunene the opportunity to clear his name.
The party would use a reputable law firm to investigate Kunene. All this happened as the minister promised.
A law firm was appointed by the PA, investigated Kunene and cleared him.
It would be funny if it were not true. A bit like Kaizer Chiefs appointing their own referee to officiate in a derby Cup final with Orlando Pirates.
ALSO READ: Kenny Kunene returns to council: Are there honourable politicians left in SA?
And McKenzie trumpets this as the “blueprint we are giving to other parties for free on how to resolve such matters”.
Forget that a whole Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into criminality, political interference and corruption was set up and is sitting in Tshwane to clear the kind of thing that the PA claims to have cleared in one month.
The PA that “did not demand ministerial posts” came back onto the scene to “demand that Kunene be reinstated by Tuesday, or the PA would walk out of all positions where it is in alliance/coalition with the ANC” and as the cherry on top, McKenzie would resign as minister from the GNU.
Humility, what humility? It is a pity that the national leadership of the ANC has apparently already ordered Joburg mayor Dada Morero and his colleagues to accede to McKenzie’s demands that Kunene be reinstated, without waiting to be cleared by a more credible body like the Madlanga commission because it would have made for an interesting spectacle to see the PA called out in its bluff.
There is no humility there, the PA is avoiding being outplayed by the EFF for positions, even going as far as threatening to “work with the DA” against the ANC.
The PA hustled its way into Cabinet and it will hustle to stay there.
NOW READ: ‘It is a small party’: McKenzie’s threat about ditching GNU over Kunene could disadvantage PA
