Blacks' over-the-top partying sets tongues wagging in SA
JOHANNESBURG: From hosting lavish parties where sushi is served on models' bodies to quaffing rare whiskys, the display of wealth by South Africa's new black elite is raising eyebrows among the poor majority.
The rise of bling culture, most noticeable among politically connected moguls, has prompted soul-searching in one of the most unequal societies in the world, with social activists equating it to "spitting in the face of the poor".
The debate was fuelled by pictures on newspaper frontpages of the weekend launch party for a nightclub where sushi was eaten off the bodies of women clad in bikinis and champagne flowed all night.
Businessman Kenny Kunene, a convicted fraudster behind the new club in Cape Town, has been lambasted by the ruling African National Congress ( ANC) for his latest show of wealth.
The flamboyant entertainment and mining magnate has hosted similar parties in Johannesburg much to the anger of women's activists.
"It is the sight of these parties where the elite display their wealth, often secured in questionable methods, that turns my stomach," said union leader Zwelinzima Vavi of Kunene's 700,000-rand ($98,000) 40th birthday party.
"It is this spitting on the face of the poor and insulting their integrity that makes me sick," Vavi added. Kunene initially defended himself, saying that as a successful black man he had every right to enjoy his money how he liked.
"You remind me of what it felt like to live under apartheid. You are telling me, a black man, what I can and cannot do with my life," he said in an open letter to Vavi. "You are narrowminded and still think that it's a sin for black people to drive sports cars or be millionaires at a young age. You make my stomach turn," he added.
But the mogul, whose soirees are often graced by the ANC's movers and shakers, has been made to eat humble pie after the ruling party chastised him. "The act is defamatory, insensitive and undermining of woman's inte! grity. W e therefore appeal to all those involved to immediately disengage from it," said the party. AFP
The rise of bling culture, most noticeable among politically connected moguls, has prompted soul-searching in one of the most unequal societies in the world, with social activists equating it to "spitting in the face of the poor".
The debate was fuelled by pictures on newspaper frontpages of the weekend launch party for a nightclub where sushi was eaten off the bodies of women clad in bikinis and champagne flowed all night.
Businessman Kenny Kunene, a convicted fraudster behind the new club in Cape Town, has been lambasted by the ruling African National Congress ( ANC) for his latest show of wealth.
The flamboyant entertainment and mining magnate has hosted similar parties in Johannesburg much to the anger of women's activists.
"It is the sight of these parties where the elite display their wealth, often secured in questionable methods, that turns my stomach," said union leader Zwelinzima Vavi of Kunene's 700,000-rand ($98,000) 40th birthday party.
"It is this spitting on the face of the poor and insulting their integrity that makes me sick," Vavi added. Kunene initially defended himself, saying that as a successful black man he had every right to enjoy his money how he liked.
"You remind me of what it felt like to live under apartheid. You are telling me, a black man, what I can and cannot do with my life," he said in an open letter to Vavi. "You are narrowminded and still think that it's a sin for black people to drive sports cars or be millionaires at a young age. You make my stomach turn," he added.
But the mogul, whose soirees are often graced by the ANC's movers and shakers, has been made to eat humble pie after the ruling party chastised him. "The act is defamatory, insensitive and undermining of woman's inte! grity. W e therefore appeal to all those involved to immediately disengage from it," said the party. AFP
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