The ghost of the Dompas: Why Gayton McKenzie's support for ICE betrays spirit of Ubuntu

In South Africa where the Springbok was once a symbol of racial exclusion but now a symbol of unity and hope, sport and politics have always been linked.

During Apartheid, the world boycotted our sports teams to help end a racist system. Because of this history, the Minister of Sport has a special duty to stand up for human rights.

So, when Gayton McKenzie voiced his support for the aggressive actions of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in America, he was turning his back on the very values that brought South Africa back into the international sporting world.

“I totally agree with ICE. We must do the same here with what they’re doing there. I cannot criticise something that I want in my own country,” McKenzie said this week.

McKenzi ran on the immigration topic ahead of the South African elections, calling for the deportation of undocumented people in the country. It's been something Donald Trump and other right-wing politicians all over the world have run on as well.

But the way they are going about rounding "illegal aliens" in the US has been disturbing to say the least.

To see why McKenzie's support is so shocking, we only have to look at our own history with Pass Laws. For decades, the Apartheid government used the "Dompas" to control Black South Africans, treating them like "illegals" in their own country. Families were ripped apart in dawn raids and forced into "Bantustans". These weren't just laws; they were tools used to humiliate people.

Now, we see a South African minister praising a system in the US that is being blamed for separating families and harming innocent people because of the colour of their skin, even if you are a US citizen. Two innocent Americans have been murdered by ICE in the middle of the street before McKenzie made this comment.

It is more than just ironic; it is dangerous. The Apartheid government used the same excuse of "law and order" to justify its cruelty that is being used to justify ICE's actions today.

This matters even more because McKenzie is the Minister of Sport. South African sport was at the heart of the anti-Apartheid struggle. The famous saying was, "No normal sport in an abnormal society". There was nothing "normal" about people being terrorised and jailed because of their skin colour.

By supporting the "hunting" of migrants, McKenzie is going against the Olympic Charter and the spirit of Ubuntu that our sports teams are supposed to represent.

Some might say he is just supporting the "rule of law". But South Africans know better than anyone that just because something is a law, it doesn't mean it is right. Apartheid was legal. The Group Areas Act was legal. The forced removals of people from their homes were all "legal."

History shows us that when a government starts targeting a specific group of people, it damages the soul of the whole country. For a South African leader to support these methods suggests he has forgotten our own past. It suggests that the hard lessons we learned in the 70s and 80s about the importance of family and the right to move freely are being ignored for cheap political points.

The Fifa World Cup is being hosted in the United States later this year, and people who are dark-skinned may think twice before going to America, even with a valid visa.

South Africa is respected globally because we stand up for human rights. It is why our government took a stand against the actions of Israel in Palestine. The South African government distanced themselves from McKenzie's statements yesterday, and rightly so. But his boss, president Cyril Ramaphosa may want to have a word with him in private.

Supporting these kinds of police-state tactics is an insult to the millions of South Africans who fought against Apartheid.

Sport should be a bridge that brings people together, not a wall that shuts them out. If our Minister of Sport cannot see the ghosts of our own painful past in the sirens of American deportation vans, then he does not truly understand the country he is supposed to lead.