Call us gobsmacked. Gayton McKenzie, the man who turns almost anything into a political argument or slogan, now urges people not to politicise the news that SA’s top swimmer, Olympic medallist Tatjana Smith, is to quit the country of her birth and will now represent The Netherlands.

His department of sports, arts and culture issued a statement claiming that the decision by Smith was a “deeply personal one” – as if it happened in isolation and had nothing to do with the state of sporting bodies in SA.

Perhaps the last straw for Smith was that Swimming South Africa (SSA) had told swimmers they needed to pay their own way to the world short course championships in Beijing next month.

That move came on the back of the bitter legal fight Smith had with them to pay her interest on the prize they withheld from her after the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.

Even though Smith has not directly criticised the government or the sports minister, clearly she and other elite athletes are fed up.

The news of her change of allegiance came just after star track athlete Caster Semenya said she would never work with any athletic body in this country because those involved in administration were “snakes” who had stabbed her in the back.

Is it because they’re women that the large male establishment in sport treats them like dirt?

We cannot dismiss that possibility, but the reality is that our world-class athletes – other than in the mega-sponsored sports like rugby – do not get the financial support they deserve.

Yet, at the same time, minister McKenzie managed to find millions in taxpayer money to take a whole bunch of hangers-on to the Fifa World Cup in the US this year.

That’s not very sporting, is it?