Note to editors: Please find English and Afrikaans soundbite by Joe McGluwa MP.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) stands in full solidarity with South Africa’s artists, performers, and cultural workers who have had enough of Minister Gayton McKenzie’s empty promises and blatant disregard for their livelihoods.
The recent sector-wide protest – sparked by widespread frustration and captured in headlines like the Daily Sun’s “Gatvol artists want McKenzie out!” – reflects the growing anger and despair felt across the creative industries. The message is loud and clear: the sector has been pushed to breaking point.
Minister McKenzie’s failure to release the Mzansi Golden Economy (MGE) funding outcomes, his Department’s erratic decision-making, and the utter collapse in communication have plunged the sector into chaos. Promises made to artists have not been kept. Applications were cancelled without proper explanation. Many creatives, particularly in rural and township areas, were locked out of the process entirely due to inaccessible submission channels. This is more than incompetence, it’s contempt.
The DA believes this is a gross betrayal of a sector that is vital not only to our economy but to our national identity. Minister McKenzie has reduced the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to a circus of self-promotion and showboating, while real artists, many of whom depend on this funding to survive, are left out in the cold.
We are calling for immediate action:
- A full parliamentary inquiry into the MGE application and adjudication process.
- The Minister and senior Department officials must be summoned to Parliament to explain the cancellation of funding calls, breakdown in communication, and allegations of maladministration.
- A special oversight visit must be conducted to determine whether public funds intended to uplift artists are being misused, withheld, or allowed to rot in bureaucratic limbo.
Artists deserve respect. They deserve transparency. They deserve a government that sees them, hears them, and supports them. Not one that uses them for press conferences and then disappears when it’s time to deliver.
The DA is committed to building a creative economy that empowers people, creates jobs, and delivers real redress, not flashy promises with no follow-through.