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Art resisting power. Minister Mckenzie proudly wears a Settler Colonial hat.

By Iqbal Suleiman

Artists are a treasure. They bring to earth a heavenly scent. They help us make sense of our world.  In times of horror, they help preserve our sanity. We are currently living through a Genocide live streamed. A Genocide that has been financed and enabled by Western powers.

Artists who are true to their craft, don’t sell out, don’t align with power and oppression.  They give everything of themselves to their craft. Most artist live frugally, struggling to get by financially. This is the experience particularly of art in the global south. Resistance Art was a crucial dimension in our liberation struggle against Apartheid, Colonialism and Capitalism.

Gabrielle Goliath is an artist in this tradition. Her art reflects the experiences of the “wretched of the earth”.  Covering themes of black suffering, femicide and genocide, it is the art of decolonization. She was cancelled by the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton Mckenzie. Goliaths work “Elegy” was selected by the Bienalle Selection Committee to be exhibited at the 2026 Venice Bienalle Pavillion. Gayton Mckenzie took offence because her work affirmed the humanity of Palestinians and he removed the work from being showcased at the Biennalle. The selection committee pushed back in response to Mckenzie and stated in an open letter “We confirm our continued support for the artist, the curator and the project in the face of political pressure and attempts to silence free expression”. Goliath told Daily Maverick that her art is rooted in “A decolonial black feminist project of care and radical love”.

Gayton Mckenzie is a Zionist and an Israel firster. He proudly supports the Genocide by being a Genocide denialist. To Mckenzie and his right wing party, the Patriotic Alliance, there is no Genocide in Gaza.  Mckenzie proudly aligns himself with the settler colonial state of Israel and against the colonized people of Palestine.

In 2023 Mckenzie went to Israel and had a camera fest with Israeli Prime Minister Hertzog. Mckenzie sits next to Hertzog with an Israeli flag. Why does a South African leader chose an Israeli flag over a South African flag?

The openly racist Hertzog expressed Israel’s genocidal intent in clear and unambiguous terms. Isaac Hertzog said after the Hamas attack of 7th October “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true”. The Israeli Prime Minister made it clear there are absolutely no civilians or innocent people in Gaza and all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are fair game for slaughter by Israel.  To Hertzog and the state of Israel, all of the people of Gaza are responsible for the 7th October attack, civilians and military combatants. Palestinians and Muslim are not innocent, they are not people. After more than two years of a grotesque genocide, Gaza was bombed to ruins. Mckenzie has never denounced the racist and genocidal language of his buddy Hertzog.

In October 2023, Mckenzie was one of the leaders pledging his loyalty to Israel at an event organized by the South African Zionist Federation. By this time Israel had killed 1900 Palestinians in one week, 600 of them were children.  A few hours before Mckenzie’s pledge of allegiance to Israel, Cyril Ramaphosa stated “As a people and organisation that struggled against an oppressive system of Apartheid, we pledged solidarity with the Palestinians as the ANC has always pledged solidarity with them”.

Mckenzie no doubt takes his cue from his masters in Tel Aviv. He defends the baby killing of his hero Netnayahu. The Times Live April 17, 2024 reports an incident in Hanover Park, Cape Town dealing with a debate on Crime.  As he was speaking about the problem of crime in South Africa, Mckenzie said “The only country that mirrors half of our problem is El Salvador-40 people die there every day”. Voices in the audience shouted out “And Gaza”. Mckenzie was enraged by this. The heart often reveals and expresses itself in moments of rage. Mckenzie raged “Hey our children die more than in Palestine. Do not tell me about Palestine here. Go to Palestine. This is not Palestine”.  As a diehard Zionist, Mckenzie could not even tolerate a reference to Palestine and the killing of innocent children in Gaza.  According to the UNICEF report of November 2022, it found that on average 3 children are murdered in South Africa every day. The report by Action Society for the second quarter of 2024-2025 found that on average 4 children are killed every day in South Africa. This issue of child murders is a serious one and no child should be murdered. Mckenzie however opportunistically uses the murder of children in South Africa to whitewash the baby killing in Gaza. These child murders in South Africa are not perpetrated by the state authorities as is the case of Israel.  Does the SAPS and the SANDF go around shooting children aiming at their heads and chests like the IDF? The report by Save the Children in 2025 found that “After two years of war, the situation for children in Gaza is dire, more than 20 000 Palestinian children have been killed and at least 39 000 children injured by Israeli forces”.  UNICEF reported that “In Gaza, an average of 28 children a day-the size of a classroom have been killed”. Gayton Mckenzie lied when he claimed more children are killed in South Africa then in Gaza.  Mckenzie is obviously practicing the art of Israeli Hasbara, a sophisticated form of deception used as a political strategy to whitewash Israeli crimes, in this instance killing children.  Mckenzie like those with a white supremacist settler mentality in the West, don’t see Palestinian as people. This is why he can condone the mass killing of Palestinian children. He has not an ounce of compassion for the children of Palestine. If anything his discourse, manufactures consent for Genocide and the slaughter of children.

Mckenzie vowed that if elected President, he would immediately withdraw the Genocide case at the ICJ. Thankfully, we live in South Africa where the majority will never elect an Uncle Tom to become the President of this country. No one should be shocked that Mckenzie cancelled a native artist, whose art is rooted in the national consciousness of the South African experience and that of the Global South. It is in our national consciousness to stand in solidarity with the oppressed and powerless and affirm their humanity when the western world dehumanizes them and supports the Genocide.

Despite his dancing with words to explain his decision to can Elegy, the real reason is obvious. Mckenzie’s decision making process was determined by his allegiance and loyalty to Israel over his allegiance to South Africa.

Elegy in humanizing the Palestinian mother and Palestinian child is the artistic expression of the poor, the wretched and the colonized.

The Apartheid regime also engaged in a war with artists. Thami Mnyele was a cultural icon who used his art as a form of resistance against Apartheid. He is also said to have drafted the design of the logo for the ANC.  In 1982, together with other resistance artists, they hosted the conference of “Culture and Resistance”.  On the 14th June 1985, he was killed by Apartheid police in Botswana. His martyrdom is an eternal inspiration for resistance artists.  After his killing, Apartheid police officer Craig Williamson displayed his art on the SABC and referred to it as “Terrorist”.

But art has an eternal power. Who remembers the names of the thugs who were in power who cancelled resistance art?  No one. Art is eternal. Turn on the songs of the late great James Phillips like “Hou My Vas”, “Darkie” and “Shot Down” that mocks the Apartheid Establishment, military and police.  “Hou My Vas’ was a masterpiece lyrically and musically but banned and received no airtime. It will be listened to by generations down the line. No one will remember the Oompies who banned it.

Iqbal Suleiman

Suleiman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria and Research Associate: Media Review Network

 

 

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