Dereleen James accuses Gayton McKenzie of intimidation and files charges
ActionSA Member of Parliament, Dereleen James, opened a case of intimidation against Minister Gayton McKenzie at the Cape Town Central Police Station, following alleged intimidation tactics and threats.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/ Independent Newspapers
ActionSA MP Dereleen James has opened a case of intimidation against Minister Gayton McKenzie at the Cape Town Central Police Station, following alleged threats and intimidation tactics.
The friction between James and McKenzie, leader of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), arose from her inquiries during Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations made by SAPS KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
During committee hearings, MPs probed alleged links between the leadership of the Patriotic Alliance and alleged Big 5 cartel member Katiso 'KT' Molefe.
ActionSA Member of Parliament, Dereleen James, opened a case of intimidation against Minister Gayton McKenzie at the Cape Town Central Police Station.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/Independent Newspapers
The committee received a letter suggesting McKenzie may be linked to drug cartels, which Mkhwanazi acknowledged as hearsay. The letter claims there is a voice recording connecting McKenzie to drug dealers and money.
At the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo, from the SAPS Crime Intelligence unit, had testified that Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala and Molefe were part of the Big Five cartel that was involved in drug trafficking.
ActionSA's Dereleen James, opened a case of intimidation against Minister Gayton McKenzie.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/Independent Newspapers
The PA’s Deputy President, Kenny Kunene, had previously dismissed the allegations as lies on Friday, saying that neither he nor the minister is involved in drugs.
McKenzie, who often uses Facebook Live to connect with supporters, said: “Let Dereleen and Kurt have a good time with my name, a very good time. Let them have a good time with my name, it’s okay, the path is long. I am 24-7 with security; outside my house now there is security, so I want to put it out now, you see, I do not come sideways.
“Enjoy my name, do what you want to do… I do not know Cat Matlala. I have never met Cat Matlala. I do not know KT [Molefe], I don’t remember his surname, I do not know these people,” McKenzie said.
ActionSA said that the minister’s repeated attempts to intimidate James are a direct attack on an elected representative fulfilling her constitutional duty to expose criminal capture by drug cartels in South Africa, and such conduct must be addressed legally.
Speaking outside the police station yesterday after opening a case of intimidation, James said that “they will not be intimidated by holding those who are in high places to account”.
“For me, it's about our communities - who is this big five? We'll continue probing irrespective of all these attempts to derail us.
“It is quite evident that where there's smoke, there's fire. I will not be silenced as the voice for this country,” James said.
“We are not saying it's true, but we're saying we are going to probe those allegations,” James said.
When asked if she expected any action from President Cyril Ramaphosa, James said it would be “very naive of me at this point to say I expect something from the president”.
When contacted for comment on the case, the PA, in turn, said that McKenzie has formally lodged a complaint with Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests against James.
“The complaint is not about political disagreement. It concerns a pattern of conduct which, on any fair reading, falls below the standards required of Members of Parliament,” the PA said.
The party claims that James’s complaint is a deliberate mischaracterisation of a statement made by McKenzie during a public Facebook Live engagement.
“Ms James has sought to present this as a threat. It was not. It is necessary to be absolutely clear about the reference to security in the same remarks," the party said.
The party said that for James to try to twist anything said by McKenzie during such a Facebook Live into a threat against her “is nothing short of absurd”.
James added that she has also lodged a case with the ethics committee against McKenzie.