Minister Gayton McKenzie skips parliamentary audit hearing to attend Cricket World Cup schedule event

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie did not attend a parliamentary audit committee briefing on Thursday after the Auditor‑General told MPs that the department had failed to keep proper track of funds and that fraud had been confirmed in some cases. Parliament was told McKenzie had sent his apologies because he was attending the announcement of the match schedule for the 2027 Cricket World Cup in Cape Town.

Senior officials also absent or unavailable

The department’s senior delegation was incomplete: deputy minister Peace Mabe was absent because of party commitments, director‑general Cynthia Khumalo was on a study tour, and acting director‑general Vincent Campbell asked to leave early to attend the same cricket event.

Auditor‑General reports fraud and poor record‑keeping

The Auditor‑General’s office told the National Assembly’s sport, arts and culture portfolio committee that a follow‑up investigation had confirmed fraud by some beneficiaries funded by the department and that the department continued to experience challenges ensuring beneficiaries accounted adequately for transferred funds.

“We have noted that the department did continue to experience challenges in ensuring that beneficiaries account adequately for transferred funds,” the Auditor‑General’s office told the committee.

“There was confirmation of fraud and misrepresentation by some of the beneficiaries relating to proof of payment documentation. The investigation did identify instances of invalid bank account details being submitted, manipulation of payment amounts and also account holder information on proof of payments.”

MPs question value of the briefing without leaders present

MK Party MP Gift Motaung asked whether the meeting was value for money without the minister and director‑general in attendance. He said:

“When we’re dealing with matters like this we really need to have a minister in place, we really need to have a director‑general in place… Do you believe this is value for money whenever we’re talking about billions of rand with the entities that the minister is running, and yet you present only to the committee and the acting director‑general, the director‑general is not here, the minister is attending an event?”

Auditor‑General business unit leader Michelle Magerman responded that her office had already taken the minister through the findings and said:

“Obviously the minister is important, they [need to] come to Parliament and account… I’m sure the reasons are also important, because there are matters that are outside of our control as individuals.”

Robben Island Museum flagged for urgent scrutiny

The Auditor‑General reported that the department spent 99.6% of its R6.3bn budget in 2025/26 but met only 80% of its targets. Among the department’s 28 entities, Robben Island Museum received an adverse audit opinion, with the office saying the museum could not provide supporting documents for various transactions and balances.

The Auditor‑General’s office said R839m in irregular expenditure across the department and its entities still had to be investigated and attributed repeat findings to a slow leadership response to recommendations.

Committee chair Joe McGluwa said:

“I’m a little bit concerned with this, where is the DG?”

He also said:

“This committee must really guard against the closure of that entity due to weak governance.”

McGluwa added that Robben Island needed further scrutiny:

“It actually needs a complete independent forensic audit,”

he said.

Disruptions and past absences

During the meeting, acting DG Vincent Campbell temporarily dropped off the virtual session when EFF MP Eugene Mthethwa asked about plans for Robben Island Museum; he returned minutes later blaming his laptop. Campbell told the committee that Khumalo was travelling, saying:

“I believe she’s on a study tour to look at the music academies.”

The committee’s chair noted this was not the first time senior leaders from the department had been missing: on June 9 the committee sent the department’s delegation away because no senior official was present to account, and the committee then demanded that the director‑general, minister or deputy minister attend future meetings.

Next steps

The committee will question the department on the audit findings on Friday. When asked to assure MPs the department would attend in full, Campbell said:

“We will all be in the meeting tomorrow morning,” Campbell said.