Pretoria – ActionSA says it has reported Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for “racist remarks” he allegedly directed at black South Africans.
In a statement on Saturday, 9 August 2025, Women’s Day, ActionSA alleged that Minister McKenzie “repeatedly used hateful slurs from the Apartheid era, along with other offensive references that served to degrade and dehumanise black South Africans”.
The statement issued by ActionSA MP Alan Beesley added: “While we hold reservations about the effectiveness of the SAHRC, it remains the constitutionally empowered institution mandated to address such matters.
“Accordingly, we will follow the prescribed process, but are fully prepared to independently institute proceedings at the Equality Court in terms of Section 20 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.”
ActionSA said earlier this week that the party joined South Africans in condemning vile and repugnant remarks directed toward the Coloured community.
“Today, we do the same in confronting racism in all its forms by holding a sitting Cabinet Minister accountable for comments that no reasonable person can defend as anything other than racist and demeaning.
“Racism and the dehumanising of any person, regardless of their race, has no place in South Africa, which is why we have also lodged a complaint against Minister Dean Macpherson for his deeply offensive and racially charged attacks on ActionSA supporters, referring to them as ‘amaphara’ and ‘hobos’.”
MP Beesley stated that non-racialism was a founding and defining value of ActionSA, “anchoring our belief that we must fight to protect the dignity of every South African and ensure that all, especially those serving as Cabinet ministers, uphold the very essence of our constitutional dispensation, for which many sacrificed their lives”.
