“They Called Me a Bandit, It’s Now Honourable,” Gayton McKenzie Shares His Life Story

Gayton McKenzie Shares His Life Story to Motivate Those In Hopeless Situations. He is a true definition of, ‘We started from the bottom and now we are here,’ catch phrase. Gayton McKenzie, was once a prisoner, and now he has made his way into parliament.

The politician and convicted criminal, was previously jailed for robbery for 17 years. He came to prominence in the early 2000s for his role in a prison exposé that eventually led to his early release amid an investigation of prison corruption by the Jali Commission of Inquiry. He turned his life around to become a successful business man, motivational speaker, author and former Executive Mayor of the Central Karoo District Municipality. McKenzie is also the president of the Patriotic Alliance political party.

McKenzie used his story of shifting from a life of crime to attaining success as a businessman as the basis for his popular motivational talks. He traveled to many schools in South Africa during his early years as a speaker, sponsored by a security company. He has gone on to work as a consultant in the mining industry in Zimbabwe and runs a diversified business with interests in restaurants, hotels and events venues, logistics and transport, imports, mining, energy, entertainment and events, publishing and farming.

Now as he is making his way into parliament, McKenzie seized the opportunity to share a motivational thread about his life story.

“I joined the gangs at age 13 as an ice boy, age 15 I was a soldier of the gang, age 16 I started own gang. My life consisted of going in and out of jail. I soon became a wanted person by various divisions of the police. I was arrested at age 21 finally,” he started off the thread.