3 days ago
- Politics
- The South African
Kenny Kunene DEFENDS Gayton's K-word tweets: 'He was quoting Gandhi'
Kenny Kunene has publicly defended Gayton McKenzie after old tweets of the Patriotic Alliance leader using the K-word recently resurfaced. He's even gone as far as to accuse the public of starting a smear campaign against his friend and business partner.
The former party deputy president recently stepped down amid a public outcry after he was linked to murder-accused businessman Katiso Molefe.
Interestingly, Gayton made the racial slurs after the duo established the political party in 2013, after meeting in prison years before.
In a series of X [formerly Twitter] posts, Kenny Kunene defended Gayton McKenzie amid the backlash of his K-word social media posts. This comes after the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture criticised the Open Chats Podcast's hosts over their racial comments amid their comments about coloured people.
Kenny posted: 'This man [Gayton McKenzie] has never been, is not, and will never be a racist. His mother is a South Sotho woman from Batho, [a] location in Mangaung, and his father is coloured. I know him better than all of you.
'Even in prison, he brought a team together for [an] expose made up of Black, White, Indian, and Coloured inmates'. Gayton McKenzie's old K-word tweets have been widely criticised.
Images via X/Pexels
Kenny went on to accuse the public of starting a smear campaign to tarnish Gayton's image.
'He is unfairly attacked in old tweets to divert attention from the insensitive and rude insults of [the] coloured community in a podcast.
'His crime was to defend the coloured people and take action on those insensitive, rude, and arrogant young people.
'I and all members of Patriotic Alliance know that our President is not a racist and we stand cement vas'.
Kenny went on to claim that the PA would be taking the podcast presents to South Africa's Equity Court.
When asked to explain the context of Gayton's K-word X posts, Kenny replied: 'He is quoting Gandhi to illustrate how black people are viewed by others, including Gandhi.'
Kenny added, 'He is discouraging the labeling of successful black business people. I said the same thing to the New York Times in 2011. He took it from me.'
Kenny Kunene's claims that Gayton McKenzie is not racist were met with disbelief amid a clip of the latter confessing to being just that.
In the video – taken last year, after he was sworn in as minister – Gayton confessed to his controversial past.
Speaking at a public event, Gayton conceded: 'I was the biggest racist you could ever find. I hated white people with a passion. But I had to de-k***inate myself, because I thought white people just see me as a k*****'.
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