INLSA

Forensic specialist remove the body of Bronx nightclub owner Brunno Bronn from his home yesterday. Bronn was found dead by his domestic worker. Photo: Matthew Jordaan

Zara Nicholson

THE OWNER of “the best known gay landmark in South Africa” and a prominent figure in the local gay community was found murdered with his hands bound in his Green Point home yesterday.

Bruno Bronn, 50, owner of one of the city’s oldest gay nightclubs, Bronx, situated along the “pink strip” in Somerset Road, was found dead by his domestic worker shortly before 9am.

A group of four friends and colleagues arrived at the home just before the body was removed from the scene. They spoke to police investigators, shaking their heads and holding their hands to their mouths.

Police and a team of forensic experts spent at least three hours at Bronn’s home in Ocean View Drive before his body was carried into a mortuary van.

One of the nightclub’s DJs, Dawid Human, broke down in tears as the forensics team removed the body.

Human told the Cape Times: “Bruno came to see me on Sunday and said he was very scared and traumatised because of this person that has been harassing him.”

Then, confronted by a media throng, Human stopped the interview and rushed off to his car.

Bronn’s domestic worker stood with police for hours, occasionally going into the house. She declined to speak to the media.

Police spokesman, Warrant Officer November Filander, confirmed that the body of a 50-year-old man was found at his house by his domestic worker.

“He was found lying on his back on the floor with his hands tied with tape in front of him. Marks were found around his neck, but the cause of death is yet to be determined.”

He said the motive for the murder was still unknown and no arrests had been made at the time of going to press. He said it was not known whether anything was taken from the house.

Filander said last night that police were waiting for Bronn’s relatives to arrive in Cape Town from Bloemfontein to identify his body.

Concerned neighbours stopped to ask questions when they noticed a media contingent and a number of police vans outside the house.

None of the neighbours could recall any suspicious activity in the road the night before or yesterday morning.

The news of Bronn’s death spread quickly through social networking sites and the gay community yesterday.

Karl Arends, a former DJ at the club who had known Bronn since the early 1990s, said he was “shocked” by the news as he and Bronn has been discussing the reopening of the club at another venue.

Bronx closed its doors a few weeks ago as the building it was situated in is due to be revamped. Arends and a few other sources said the club had been struggling recently and Bronn wanted to relocate it to another venue.

“I spoke to him last week about the reopening of the club and was waiting for him to get back to me. I actually tried calling him this morning (Monday). I worked with him for many years. He was a very private person but I was close to him because people who worked with him were like his family, and his two dogs were very special to him,” Arends said.

A former colleague who asked not to be named said: “I am very sad about it and I am sure a lot of people will be. He was a very complicated person but we were really good friends for many years. Even though he was difficult to work for, he built Bronx into an institution and then he closed the business recently because he wasn’t making any money.

“His partner, Jonno, died about six years ago and Bruno was never the same after that.

They were together for a long time and they made the perfect team running Bronx.”

Gary De Klerk, editor of the Pink Tongue magazine, said Bronn “started Bronx may years ago and it was one of the best clubs. It has an international reputation. Bronx was the place to party and to have fun. It was one of the first openly gay venues in Cape Town when it opened in the mid-90s and became one of the longest running venues.”

De Klerk said Bronn and his late partner, Jonno Isaacs, invested a lot of “passion, time and energy” in the venue.

On Bronx’s website, the club was described as “the longest running gay venue” and “the best known gay landmark in South Africa”. Bronn was quoted as saying: “Crowd control is probably our biggest challenge. We see ourselves as the anchor for the Gay Village and the Home Bar, where everyone comes, where the action starts – but never stops.”

The club made news in 2006 when five shots were fired at it in the early hours of the morning in a drive-by shooting. A security guard was wounded. Bronn denied the shooting had anything to do with the club.

In 2008 Bronn created another club, Navigaytion, situated above Bronx.

Yesterday on the Navigaytion Facebook wall, messages poured in for Bronn, with one user saying: “How tragic, Bruno will be sadly missed.”

zara.nicholson@inl.co.za