REMOVE GAYTON MCKENZIE FROM CABINET FOR HIS UNCONSTITUTIONAL BEHAVIOUR

We, the undersigned, reject with contempt the decision by Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie to cancel South Africa’s submission to the prestigious arts exhibition of the 61st Venice Biennale, and we call for decisive action to be taken against him. 

The selected submission, ‘Elegy’, by nationally- and internationally-acclaimed artist, Gabrielle Goliath, provides a wide lens of suffering and oppression in South Africa and Namibia but also depicts the brutal deaths of women and children in Gaza. Goliath describes Elegy as: “Drawing significant connections between the national disaster of femicide in South Africa, the Ovaherero and Nama genocide in Namibia, and the unfolding crisis of displacement and death in Gaza, it asks us to consider and refuse conditions that render some lives grievable and others available to death and disavowal.”

The minister sanctioned the Gaza portrayal in particular. In doing so, he acted in violation of Article 16(c) of the Bill of Rights dealing with “freedom of artistic creativity”, he undermined the South African government’s widely-acclaimed International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Minister McKenzie, known for his public and enthusiastic support of Israeli policies, had previously called on the government to withdraw the ICJ case.

It is unacceptable for a minister to overstep his powers in this manner, and to suppress freedom of expression – in contravention of his ministerial mandate – and remain in office .  

We therefore call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to use his constitutional prerogative to immediately remove Minister McKenzie from the Cabinet, and to replace him with a minister who is more attuned to how the moral imperatives in South Africa’s constitution and foreign policy should be interpreted and promoted in the world of arts and culture.