Gayton McKenzie Promises to Contribute 100% of his Annual Salary to the Joshlin Smith Foundation

Picture courtesy: (Patriotic Alliance) Former convict and now Minister of sports, arts and culture, Gayton McKenzie promises to donate his annual parliamentary salary to the Joshlin Smith Foundation.

(The Post News)- Gayton McKenzie, a newly elected Sports Minister, announced that he will contribute to the Joshlin Smith Foundation for missing children by donating 100% of his annual parliamentary salary.

The Patriotic Alliance leader’s annual salary will be around R2.68 million from his ministerial position; he will be in that position for the next five years.

However, if he was just going to be an ordinary Member of Parliament, the salary was going to remain around R1.27 million annually.

The matter regarding the disappearance of Joshlin Smith, who is a Grade 1 learner from Diazville Primary, has not been found since she disappeared on February 19.

The state does claim that Joshlin was sold for R20,000.

In March, McKenzie announced that he would be offering an R1 million reward to assist in the safe return of Joshlin Smith, a missing six-year-old girl from Saldanha Bay. McKenzie emphasized that the primary goal was not the money, but to make a significant impact on people’s lives.

Joshlin Smith has become a symbol of national conscience and a rainbow child. McKenzie clarified that the R1 million would come from his own funds, which were initially intended for his political campaign.

In June, during the investigation in the Saldanha Bay area, the police in the Western Cape confirmed that they had discovered clothing which was sent for forensic analysis.

Meanwhile, charges of trafficking in persons, including exploitation and kidnapping, had been laid against Joshlin’s mother, Kelly Smith, her boyfriend, Jacquen ‘Boeta’ Appolis, Stevano van Rhyn, and Lourentia Lombaard.

On Tuesday, during the live stream broadcast on his Facebook page, Mckenzie provided the public with an update on the Joshlin case, saying that it was known that Joshlin had not been buried in Saldanha Bay as the area has been scoured and searches are still underway for the child with the hope of finding the missing child.

His teams provided the police with the suspects currently incarcerated around seven days before their arrests, even though nothing was done at the time.

Mckenzie also called out the police for not providing residents with the progress of the case to seek public assistance if needed.

At the moment, the group is in custody, and they will be back in court on July 15.