Fallout over Mkhwanazi's claims: Charges laid against Gayton McKenzie for 'repeated attempts to intimidate'

ActionSA Member of Parliament, Dereleen James, opened a case of intimidation against Minister Gayton McKenzie at the Cape Town Central Police Station on Monday, following alleged intimidation tactics and threats.

The friction between James and McKenzie, who is the Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader, has stemmed from her probing during Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations made by SAPS KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

During committee hearings, MPs probed alleged links between the leadership of the Patriotic Alliance and alleged Big 5 cartel member Katiso 'KT' Molefe.

The committee also had a letter presented before it, suggesting McKenzie could be linked to drug cartels. Mkhwanazi acknowledged that the letter constituted hearsay evidence. In the letter, a voice recording allegedly exists linking McKenzie with drug dealers and drug money.

At the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo, from the SAPS Crime Intelligence unit, had testified that Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala and Molefe were part of the Big Five cartel that was involved in drug trafficking.

The PA’s Deputy President, Kenny Kunene, had previously dismissed the allegations as lies on Friday, saying that neither he nor the minister is involved in drugs.

McKenzie, who has frequently taken to Facebook Live to connect with his supporters, said: “Let Dereleen and Kurt have a good time with my name, a very good time. Let them have a good time with my name, it’s okay, the path is long. I am 24-7 with security, outside my house now there is security, so I want to put it out now, you see, I do not come sideways.

“Enjoy my name, do what you want to do… I do not know Cat Matlala. I have never met Cat Matlala. I do not know KT [Molefe], I don’t remember his surname, I do not know these people,” McKenzie said.

ActionSA said that the minister’s repeated attempts to intimidate James are a direct attack on an elected public representative carrying out her constitutional duties to expose criminal capture by drug cartels in South Africa, and believes that such conduct must be addressed in accordance with the law.

Speaking outside the police station on Tuesday after opening a case of intimidation, James said that “they will not be intimidated by holding those who are in high places to account”.

“We will act without fear, without favour. We have fear enough going on in our communities. Everyone knows that we are probing. For me, it's about our communities - who is this big five? We'll continue probing irrespective of all these attempts to derail us.

“It is quite evident that where there's smoke, there's fire. I will not be silenced as the voice for this country,” James said.

“I think it's so clear, and it's so evident even when I walked in here, everyone agrees that this is definitely a case of intimidation, and we all know why I'm being intimidated, because people, and members of the Patriotic Alliance, are allegedly linked to these drug cartels.

“We are not saying it's true, but we're saying we are going to probe those allegations,” James said.

When asked if she expected any action from President Cyril Ramaphosa, James said it would be “very naive of me at this point to say I expect something from the president”.

“The president had an opportunity to act against the Minister of Police when he was involved in all of this. The president came back in his responses just the other day, telling us that the minister did not meet with him. Meaning that the minister lied.

“That person remains, as part of his Cabinet. The president has had ample opportunities to act against General Sibiya, who is in partnership with all of these cartels. So why today would I expect anything from the president?

“This is why it's important for us as members of Parliament and ordinary South Africans to actually act when we have threats and intimidation tactics,” James said.

When contacted for comment on the case, the PA, in turn, said that McKenzie has formally lodged a complaint with Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests against James.

“The complaint is not about political disagreement. It concerns a pattern of conduct which, on any fair reading, falls below the standards required of Members of Parliament,” the PA said.

The party claims that James’s complaint is a deliberate mischaracterisation of a statement made by McKenzie during a public Facebook Live engagement.

“In that engagement, he used the phrase ‘the road is long’ – which is little more than a commonly understood idiomatic expression meaning that time reveals the truth, that perspectives change, and those who win in the short term do not always win in the long term.

“Ms James has sought to present this as a threat. It was not. It is necessary to be absolutely clear about the reference to security in the same remarks.

“That explanation was deliberately stripped of its context and repackaged by Ms James into a narrative of ‘threat’ and ‘intimidation’,” the party said.

The party said that for James to try to twist anything said by McKenzie during such a Facebook Live into a threat against her “is nothing short of absurd”.

“The Patriotic Alliance will allow the ethics process to run its course, will continue to focus on delivery in the Government of National Unity and will not allow itself to be distracted by political sideshows.”

James added that she has also lodged a case with the ethics committee against McKenzie.

[email protected]