Why Gayton McKenzie’s ICE Comments Clash With South Africa’s History

A Country Shaped By Sport And Struggle

South Africans know better than most that sport has never existed in a vacuum. From the years when the Springbok emblem represented exclusion to the era where it symbolises unity, our sporting heritage is tightly woven into our political past. That is why the role of the Minister of Sport holds a unique moral responsibility. It is not only about jerseys and fixtures. It is about memory.

So when Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie publicly backed the controversial actions of America’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it struck a nerve. His comments were blunt: he said he agreed fully with ICE and believed South Africa should follow the same approach.

A Troubling Parallel With Our Past

For anyone who has lived in or even remotely understands South Africa’s history, this hit a sensitive nerve. ICE’s tactics in the US have been widely criticised for targeting migrants in ways that many say are discriminatory, violent and deeply dehumanising. Reports out of America have even linked ICE to fatal encounters involving innocent US citizens.

To hear a South African leader endorse this immediately echoes the darkest chapters of our past. During Apartheid, the Pass Laws reduced Black South Africans to “illegals” in their own country. Police raids, humiliating checkpoints and families torn apart were part of everyday life. The Dompas was not just paper. It was psychological warfare.

That is why McKenzie’s support feels so jarring. It ignores the lived trauma of millions who still carry generational memories of being hunted for simply existing.

When Law Becomes A Weapon

Supporters of McKenzie may argue he is promoting the rule of law. But South Africans know that laws are not automatically just. Apartheid was legal. Forced removals were legal. The Group Areas Act was legal. Legality and humanity are not the same thing.

The methods used in the United States today mirror the language once used here. A government labels a group as a threat, justifies harsh enforcement, then claims it is maintaining order. It is a slippery slope we have seen before, and South Africa paid dearly for it.

A Minister Out Of Step With Sport’s Moral Standing

McKenzie holds a portfolio that should honour South Africa’s long fight for dignity and equality. Global sporting isolation helped force Apartheid to its knees. The motto back then was simple: no normal sport in an abnormal society.

By aligning himself with ICE’s controversial tactics, he risks undermining the values that allowed South Africa to rejoin the world of sport in the first place. It also raises uncomfortable questions ahead of the FIFA World Cup in the United States later this year. Would African fans, especially dark-skinned travellers, feel safe visiting a country where migration policing is under such scrutiny?

A Government Forced To Clarify

South Africa has built a global reputation for standing firmly for human rights. The government’s recent positions on international conflicts reflect that identity. This made it unsurprising that officials quickly distanced themselves from McKenzie’s remarks.

Still, it begs the question: how does a minister in one of South Africa’s most symbolically important portfolios stray so far from the principles he is meant to protect?

Remembering Ubuntu

The spirit of Ubuntu is not a slogan. It is a worldview rooted in community, dignity and empathy. It is what brought us through the worst of our past and continues to inspire our sporting teams today.

When a leader praises tactics that echo the traumas of the Dompas era, it feels like a betrayal of that ethos. South Africa cannot afford selective memory, especially from those entrusted with safeguarding national identity.

If the ghosts of Apartheid’s policing cannot be recognised in the sirens of American deportation vans, then we risk forgetting the human cost of where we come from.

{Source: IOL}

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