Minister

Minister Gayton McKenzie

Mr Gayton McKenzie

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture

Appointed: 3 July 2024

Biography

Mr Gayton McKenzie was born in Bloemfontein in the Free State in 1974. He was a gifted athlete in his early years, particularly in running.

He is a motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and author of The Choice: The Gayton McKenzie Story. He has interests in publishing, entertainment, restaurants, mining, and consulting.

In 2013, he entered politics and co-founded the Patriotic Alliance, now represented in Parliament and provincial legislatures.

Key Responsibilities

  • Provide political and strategic direction to the Department
  • Coordinate parliamentary and Cabinet matters
  • Manage communication between institutions in the portfolio
  • Oversee departmental programmes and special projects
  • Ensure strategic leadership and media coordination

Office Functions

  • Strategic and operational planning
  • Budget management
  • Human resources oversight
  • Policy implementation and compliance monitoring
  • Administrative and parliamentary support

Chief of Staff

Ms Nontsikelelo Pule

Email: NontsikeleloP@dsac.gov.za

Spokesperson

Ms Stacey-Lee Khojane

Email: StaceyK@dsac.gov.za

Parliamentary Liaison

Ms Michele Botha

Email: MicheleB@dsac.gov.za

Minister Gayton McKenzie

Mr Gayton McKenzie

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture

Appointed: 3 July 2024

Purpose and Functions of the Ministry

The executive authority has a responsibility to give political and strategic direction to the Department and its agencies to ensure that they deliver on this mandate. The role of the Minister or Executive Authority is outlined in section 7 of the Public Administration Act of 1994 In order to play this role the executive authority needs to have sufficient political, strategic and administrative support capacity. The Public Service Act of 1994 and Chapter 8 of the Ministerial Handbook outline the support requirements for the Executive Authority (The Ministry). These requirements are informed by the following Key Performance Areas in the Ministry, which are necessary for the executive authority to perform his/her duties optimally. The following are the Key Performance Areas of the Ministry.

Ensure that administrative support is rendered to the executing authority on Parliamentary and Cabinet matters.

This would include, inter alia, entail the following:

  • Ensure that events in Parliament are monitored to identify matters that have a bearing on the portfolio of the executing authority and coordination of parliamentary questions.
  • Ensure that an efficient and effective parliamentary service is rendered.
  • Ensure that the movement between the Pretoria and Cape Town offices for parliamentary sessions are co-ordinated and controlled.
  • Deal with Parliamentary and Cabinet matters as the need arises.

Ensure that the required administrative functions are performed within the office of the executing authority.

This would include, inter alia, entail the following:

  • Ensure that liaison with internal and external role-players with regard to matters relating to the portfolio of the executing authority is done.
  • Ensure that a Cabinet support service is rendered to the executing authority.
  • Personally liaise with internal and external role-players and render a Cabinet support service as the need arises.

Assist the executing authority with his/her constituency work.

This would include, inter alia, entail the following:

  • Liaise with relevant role-players in the constituency and other political structures.
  • Resolve constituency matters referred to the Ministry.
  • Follow up and monitor requests received from the constituency.

Assist the executing authority with matters emanating from his/her portfolio and official matters emanating from other activities, e.g. participation in national and international forums and structures.

This would include, inter alia, entail the following:

  • Co-ordinate and follow-up on requests and instructions of the executing authority to institutions within his/her portfolio.
  • Serve as link between the executing authority and the institutions within the portfolio of the executing authority.
  • Compile documents and briefing notes as required for the executing authority.
  • Verbally brief and/or ensure that the executing authority receives documentation and briefing notes for meetings timeously.
  • Manage the VIP security of the executing authority with the SAPS.
  • Conduct research as required by the executing authority.
  • Give strategic leadership on, and co-ordinate communication with, the media on the portfolio and other activities of the executing authority.
  • Manage special projects as required by the executing authority.
  • Oversee the management and maintenance of the official residence of the executing authority by Public Works.

Manage the office of the Ministry.

This would include, inter alia, entail the following:

  • Develop and manage the strategic and operational plans of the office of the executing authority.
  • Manage the budget of the office of the executing authority.
  • Manage the human resources in the office of the executing authority.
  • Ensure the efficient and effective utilization of human resources.
  • Ensure that the necessary personnel are recruited and retained within budgetary constraints.
  • Ensure sound employment relations.
  • Quality control of the work delivered by supervisees.
  • Advise supervisees with regard to all aspects of the work.
  • Serve as the formal disciplinary authority with regard to the employees in the office of the executing authority.
  • Ensure that supervisees are trained and developed to be able to deliver work of the required standard efficiently and effectively.
  • Establish, implement and maintain efficient and effective communication arrangements with employees in the office of the executing authority.

Study the relevant Public Service and departmental prescripts/policies and other documents and ensure that the application thereof is understood properly.

This will entail inter alia:

  • Remaining up to date with regard to the applicable prescripts/policies and procedures that apply to his/her work terrain.
  • Remaining abreast with the procedures and processes applicable to the office of the executing authority.

In order to build the necessary capacity to allow the Ministry to deliver on its Key Performance Areas, a structure is proposed in relation to the identified roles.

Minister Gayton McKenzie - Budget Vote Speech

Honourable Members, every government department exists to solve a problem. Some build roads. Some keep us safe. Some teach our children. This department exists to answer a different kind of problem: who are we, and what are we becoming? You cannot build a country only with just concrete and steel. You must also build it with stories, with songs and games, contests and tournaments – with the things people remember in their rocking chair. That is what we do here.

The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has been allocated R6.617 billion for the 2026/27 financial year: to develop, transform, preserve, protect and promote sport, arts and culture, and through them, to build a nation that is active, creative, winning, and cohesive.

Ministeriële Toespraak Afrikaanse Taalherdenking Minister Gayton Mckenzie Oorlogsmuseum van die Boererepublieke, Bloemfontein

Dit is vir my ’n besondere voorreg om vandag hier voor u te kan staan, en ek doen dit nie as ’n besoeker by ’n ander gemeenskap se viering nie, maar as iemand vir wie hierdie taal die heel eerste was waarmee hy die wêreld leer ken het. Afrikaans is die taal van my mense, van my kinderjare, en van die innerlike gesprek wat ek met myself voer wanneer ek alleen is, en dit is uit hoofde van daardie verhouding — eerder as enige amptelike posisie — dat ek vandag met u praat.

The Minister Gayton McKenzie - On the Occasion of the 10th African World Heritage Day and the 20th Anniversary of the African World Heritage Fund Development Bank of Southern Africa, Midrand, Johannesburg

We gather today to mark two milestones that belong not only to an institution, but to a continent. The 10th African World Heritage Day and the 20th anniversary of the African World Heritage Fund – twenty years of investing in something that cannot be replaced, cannot be replicated, and cannot be recovered once lost.

Minister Gayton McKenzie - Announcement of winners of the Mzansi to the world cup lucky fans competition at GCIS

Announcement of winners of the Mzansi to the world cup lucky fans competition.

This competition was about more than just winning a trip. It was about giving a platform to the voices of our people — the fans who stand by their teams through every victory and every challenge

Address by Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie on the occassion of Media Briefing at Freedom Park

Good morning, and thank you for joining us here at Freedom Park – a site that holds our country's memory, and reminds us that sport, arts and culture are never separate from the long work of building a nation.

Address by Minister Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie on the occassion of the receiving ceremony of the Sacred Bird, Zimbabwe House, Harare

Your Excellency, I bring you the warmest greetings of President Cyril Ramaphosa, our Government of National Unity, and people of the Republic of South Africa.

Of all the birds taken from Great Zimbabwe in the colonial era, this one was taken first. It was the first to leave. And it is the last to come home.

Address by Minister Gayton McKenzie on the occasion of the handover ceremony of the Zimbabwe Soapstone Bird and Ancestral Human Remains at Iziko South African Museum

Good afternoon. 

I want to begin with a name.

The object we are returning today has been referred to, for 137 years, as "the Zimbabwe soapstone bird". In the colonial record, it has an accession number. It has dimensions. It has a provenance note. It has been described, catalogued, photographed, and cited in academic papers. In Cecil Rhodes's study at Groote Schuur, it sat on a cabinet among other items taken from other places, reduced by its placement and by the logic of its collector to a trophy. 

Minister Gayton McKenzie at Freedom Park

Good afternoon members of the media, colleagues, and fellow South Africans.

Let me begin where millions of South Africans were this past weekend — watching one of the greatest spectacles in world football.

The Soweto Derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

Toespraak: 50 Jaar van die Afrikaans taal museum en –monument

Toespraak: 50 Jaar van die Afrikaans taal museum en –monument

Address by Minister Gayton McKenzie at the press conference on SAFA and overall Sport, Arts and Culture Portfolio at Freedom Park

Let me start with an issue that has dominated headlines over the past few weeks – the so-called “yellow-card blunder” that threatened to derail Bafana Bafana’s World Cup qualification campaign.

When I heard that our national team had been docked three points, I requested a full report from SAFA following our successful qualification for the World Cup. Just because we survived the scare, that didn’t mean that we needed to sweep the matter under the carpet. I wrote to FIFA, too, to apologise for the embarrassment caused and to acknowledge that this was about ensuring accountability and that it would never happen again.

G20 Culture Working Group Ministers adopt KwaDukuza Declaration to Advance Culture and the Arts through Collaborative Action

G20 Culture Working Group Ministers adopt KwaDukuza Declaration to Advance Culture and the Arts through Collaborative Action
Department of Sport, Arts and Culture announces R82m Allocation for Video Assistant Referee System in SA Football

The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) is pleased to announce significant progress in the procurement and implementation of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system for South African football, in close collaboration with the South African Football Association (SAFA) and the Premier Soccer League (PSL).
Statement on Publication of Preliminary List of Approved Mzansi Golden Economy (MGE) Applicants

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie wishes to correct the irresponsible and recent media reports that suggest that any of the companies listed on the “2025/26 MGE Open Call Approved Projects” sheet have been approved for funding as yet.
Minister McKenzie welcomes latest ruling in favour of Caster Semenya

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie has welcomed the recent judgment by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which upheld a 2023 ruling by the ECHR’s lower chamber that Caster Mokgadi Semenya was denied a fair and effective hearing by the Swiss Federal Tribunal regarding the long-running controversy around her right to participate in professional athletics.
Public response to National Arts and Culture Awards (NACA) 2025 exceeds expectations, adjudication process now underway

The NACA 2025 extends sincere gratitude to the public, artists, and cultural practitioners across South Africa for their overwhelming response to this year’s call for submissions.
Final Call for Entries: NACA Awards 2025

Celebrating the Bold, the Brilliant, the Best in South African Creativity

Johannesburg, South Africa — The countdown is on. With the closing date of 20 June 2025 fast approaching, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) is making one last call to South Africa’s creative community — artists, industry bodies, and cultural organisations — to submit their most outstanding work for the National Arts & Culture Awards (NACA) 2025.
Media Site Visit for the 2025 National Freedom Day Celebartion in Emerlo, Mpumalanga Province

The government will host the 2025 National Freedom Day celebration on Sunday, 27 April 2025 at the AJ Swanepoel Stadium in Ermelo, Msukwaligwa Local Municipality within the Gert Sibande District Municipality in the Mpumalanga Province. 
Statement on matters relating to Boxing South Africa

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture and Boxing South Africa appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture on 27 August 2024 to account on the entity’s Annual Performance Plan and other pertinent matters.
Minister McKenzie congratulates Mighty Team South Africa’s Victory in Australia

In what has been a dream weekend for South African sport, the Springboks won back-to-back matches in Australia for the first time in 53 years and South Africa’s first and only Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) world champion, Dricus “Stillknocks” du Plessis, successfully defended his middleweight belt against legendary former champion Israel Adesanya.
Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture reaches an agreement to assist the National School of the Arts

The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), Mr Gayton McKenzie along with Deputy Minister Peace Mabe and DSAC management visited the National School of the Arts (NSA), on Saturday, 03 August 2024.