A leaked dossier claims that people linked to Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie and his Patriotic Alliance (PA) hold seats on several public boards, IOL reported.
The dossier named people who served on Johannesburg municipal boards and on national arts, culture and heritage bodies. The city entities include the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), the Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC), Metrobus and the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco).
“The ministry of sport, arts and culture should really be renamed the ministry of cadre deployment,” the dossier said.
It argued that the appointments should be read together. “The same network of individuals repeatedly appears across national cultural institutions, heritage bodies, municipal entities, public boards, audit committees, and oversight structures,” it said.
One of the people named is Eugene Botha, the PA’s top lawyer. Botha told IOL he quit as chairperson of the National Arts Council (NAC) on Wednesday.
He said he left because the council went ahead with appointing a new chief executive and finance head. McKenzie had asked the council to wait while its court case against him was still open.
“In my judgement, proceeding at that stage created avoidable governance and legal risks,” Botha said. Four other council members, Simon Clarke, Siphosethu Mtamzeli, Tau Masemola and Charnie-Lee Adams-Kruger, resigned with him.
Botha said he never hid his ties to McKenzie and the party. “I applied through the public process, was interviewed and was appointed with effect from January 1, 2025,” he said. He added that he submitted a written declaration of interests.
McKenzie dissolved the NAC council on May 26 over a labour dispute about performance bonuses and concerns about procurement spending. The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria suspended that decision on July 31 and put the council back in place.
The dossier described Clarke as the PA’s first treasurer. It said he chaired the JRA board, served on the Joshco board and sat on both the NAC and the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) council. Clarke did not respond to IOL’s questions.
The dossier also claimed that seven current MTC board members are PA members or linked to the party. It tied this to PA deputy president Kenny Kunene, who served as Johannesburg’s mayoral committee member for transport.
Kunene denied the claims. He said the dossier was a smear campaign by the Democratic Alliance ahead of elections. He said other parties also have members sitting on boards.
Other people named in the dossier include PA head of marketing Bakang Lethoko, Botha’s mother Wilma Botha and Shaudah Chetty. None of them responded to IOL’s requests for comment.
McKenzie dissolved the NFVF council on September 23. NFVF communications officer Busisiwe Hoho said appointing or dissolving the council was “the sole prerogative of the minister.”
In June 2025, McKenzie told a parliamentary committee he had broken no law over Botha’s appointment. “Knowing someone does not equal conflict of interest,” he said. McKenzie did not respond to questions IOL sent to him about the dossier.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.