Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie is facing criticism over his accusations of hypocrisy against South Africa’s Muslim community, with election results challenging his suggestion that Muslims who publicly support Palestine overwhelmingly voted for the Democratic Alliance (DA), a party he characterised as Zionist.
His remarks, made following the 4 November local government elections, have brought renewed attention to the relationship between Muslim electoral participation, solidarity with Palestine and the community’s responsibility to remain consistent in its support for the Palestinian cause.
McKenzie made the comments at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) national results operations centre in Gauteng, accusing Muslims in Cape Town of hypocrisy for criticising his position on Israel and Palestine while allegedly supporting the DA.
“I have my stance when it comes to Israel and Palestine. But the very same Muslim people in Cape Town that criticise me are voting for the DA. That is the truth you don’t want to talk about,” he said.
He further questioned how Muslim voters could chant “from the river to the sea” while supporting a party he characterised as Zionist.
For Muslims, solidarity with Palestine is not simply another political consideration. It is rooted in the Islamic principles of justice, opposition to oppression and responsibility towards the Ummah. Support for the Palestinian people carries an expectation of consistency, particularly when political parties and leaders are assessed against their positions on Israel’s occupation and actions in Gaza.
However, the principle of accountability must also be grounded in facts. McKenzie’s suggestion that Cape Town’s Muslims overwhelmingly supported the DA has been challenged by electoral patterns in several areas with significant Muslim populations.
Election results challenge sweeping claims
Political analyst Fazlin Taliep Fransman has challenged McKenzie’s characterisation, arguing that voting patterns in several historically Muslim areas of Cape Town contradict his portrayal of the community.
Speaking to One Nation Media (ONM), she rejected the suggestion that Muslims had collectively supported the DA while publicly expressing solidarity with Palestine.
“That, of course, is not true,” she said, referring to McKenzie’s suggestion that the community had betrayed the Palestinian cause.
Taliep Fransman pointed to voting patterns in areas with significant Muslim populations, including Rylands, Surrey Estate and Primrose Park, where she said many voters supported parties other than the DA.
She also highlighted the performance of Al Jama-ah, which increased its representation in the City of Cape Town council from three councillors to six.
According to Taliep Fransman, the party’s gains reflected a shift in support within areas with significant Muslim populations, with Al Jama-ah emerging as the second-largest party in several of these areas.
“The reason why the reference to Al Jama-ah is so relevant is because clearly we can say it is the Muslim community that shifted,” she told ONM.
She argued that it was disingenuous for political actors to suggest that Muslims were publicly expressing solidarity with Palestine while voting for parties they believed supported Zionism and Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“The data, especially for high-density Muslim areas, is unequivocally not true,” she said.
The broader electoral picture provides important context. In Cape Town’s Ward 46, which includes Rylands, Gatesville and Surrey Estate, Al Jama-ah secured approximately 26.6% of the ward vote, compared with the DA’s 37.3%. While the DA won the ward, Al Jama-ah finished second, demonstrating substantial electoral support for an alternative party in an area McKenzie specifically referenced.
The results challenge any suggestion that voters in these areas overwhelmingly rallied behind the DA without opposition.
Muslim communities beyond Cape Town
Electoral results in other areas with established Muslim communities also provide grounds for questioning broad generalisations about Muslim support for the DA.
In Gauteng, the African National Congress (ANC) secured victory in Ward 3 of Mogale City, which includes Azaadville, winning 61.3% of the ward vote. The party also received more than half of the votes in the Azaadville Community Hall and Azaadville Nursery School voting districts.
These results further challenge attempts to present support for the DA as the predominant electoral pattern across areas with significant Muslim populations.
However, electoral results must be interpreted accurately. Voting district figures do not identify voters by religion, and they cannot independently establish how individual Muslims voted.
What they do establish is that McKenzie’s generalisation cannot simply be accepted as an accurate representation of Muslim voting behaviour without evidence.
Palestine solidarity demands consistency
The controversy also raises a more fundamental question about the responsibility of Muslims to uphold their commitment to Palestine when engaging in South Africa’s electoral processes.
For the Muslim community, the suffering of Palestinians is not a distant foreign policy concern that can be separated from questions of justice and accountability.
The continued occupation of Palestinian territory, the devastation in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinian civilians place a responsibility on Muslims to consider the positions and actions of political parties towards Palestine.
This responsibility is rooted in the understanding that the interests of the Ummah extend beyond national borders. Solidarity with Palestinians cannot be confined to demonstrations, public statements or humanitarian campaigns while the conduct of political parties towards Palestine is disregarded.
There is therefore a legitimate expectation that Muslims should remain principled and consistent when evaluating political parties, including their positions on Israel and Palestine.
That commitment may also require difficult choices and sacrifices. For Muslims who regard solidarity with Palestine as a religious and moral responsibility, concerns about local governance and service delivery cannot automatically override opposition to injustice against the Palestinian people.
However, this responsibility does not justify presenting unsubstantiated claims about how an entire community voted as established fact.
McKenzie’s criticism must therefore be distinguished from the broader principle that Muslims should be accountable for the political decisions they make and the parties they support.
Accountability must be based on facts
The election results raise questions about the accuracy of McKenzie’s accusation, but they do not remove the responsibility of Muslims to examine whether their political decisions are consistent with their stated commitment to Palestine.
McKenzie’s accusation also overlooks Muslims who chose to abstain from voting altogether on religious grounds while continuing to stand firmly in solidarity with Palestine and support the wider Ummah. Their abstention reflects a religious position on electoral participation and should not be interpreted as indifference towards the suffering of Palestinians or a lack of commitment to the Palestinian cause.
Political leaders and community members are entitled to question apparent contradictions between public declarations of solidarity and support for parties whose positions on Palestine are considered inconsistent with those declarations.
Such scrutiny is not inherently unfair. Holding political parties and voters accountable is an important part of ensuring that support for Palestine extends beyond slogans and public demonstrations.
However, accountability must be informed by accurate information rather than assumptions about the collective conduct of a religious community.
The gains made by Al Jama-ah in Cape Town, alongside the election results in Azaadville, demonstrate why sweeping statements about Muslim voting behaviour require closer examination.
They do not establish the religious identity of individual voters, but they do challenge the suggestion that Muslim-populated areas uniformly supported the DA.
Ultimately, the issue is not whether Muslims should be held accountable for their electoral decisions. Their commitment to justice and solidarity with the Ummah demands consistency between principle and action.
The question is whether McKenzie’s accusations accurately reflect how Muslims voted or whether an entire community has been portrayed as abandoning Palestine without sufficient evidence.
For South Africa’s Muslim community, Palestine remains a matter of principle, not political convenience. That commitment demands consistency and accountability, but it also demands that accusations against the community be supported by facts.
