Durban - DA councillor Heinz de Boer has vowed not to back down from a fight over an “illegal strip club” in the heart of uMhlanga, amid threats of legal action by owner Shaun Russouw.
Russouw, who owns the Diamond Grill and Lounge, a strip club that has a bar, restaurant and gambling machines, on uMhlanga’s Lagoon Drive - and who also owns a Teazers branch in Durban - claims De Boer has a personal vendetta against him and wants his uMhlanga business closed.
He has threatened to take De Boer and the eThekwini Municipality to court for loss of income after two raids at his establishment for allegedly not having a proper licence to run a strip club.
But De Boer hit back on Sunday, saying he was considering legal options against Russouw for allegedly defaming him.
“I will be talking to the municipality’s legal department to see what are our options. For as much as he wants to take legal action, I am considering mine because he has defamed me by saying I have a vendetta against him,” he said.
De Boer, the ward councillor for uMhlanga, said he had received several complaints from residents about the strip club, and took up their grievances with town planning officials.
“You cannot just run a strip club, you have to have a special licence, which Mr Russouw does not have. This is not a personal vendetta, but about operating in a legal manner,” De Boer said on Sunday.
Russouw, however, believes he is doing no wrong.
“There is no such thing as a strip club licence. There was an old law which did not allow alcohol and nudity on the premises. That law, however, was challenged by Andrew Phillips from the Ranch (strip club in Johannesburg), who went to the Constitutional Court in 2003 and it was declared unconstitutional,” Russouw said.
He said there was a sex shop in an uMhlanga shopping centre (Granada Square) which had operated since 2007 that offered lap dances for women clientele, and had never attracted the attention of De Boer or the municipal authorities.
“That has been operating for seven years, but what have they done about it? So what is different to what I am doing? Across the road from there, there is another sex shop and the whole argument is that there is no place in uMhlanga for adult premises,” he said.
Russouw, who said he had a liquor and restaurant licence, said the municipality had issued him two fines in recent weeks, each for R1 000 for allegedly operating a nightclub illegally.
A court date, March 27, had been set down, but Russouw said he planned to challenge it.
“I do not operate a nightclub. Patrons cannot dance on my premises. It can only seat 40 people. There are women who walk around naked, and if a customer wants a lap-dance they can have one,” he said.
eThekwini spokesman, Thabo Mofokeng, said city inspectors believed Russouw did not have the proper licence to operate a strip club. He said strip clubs needed to have a special entertainment licence.
“We have issued him fines and will be asking him to comply with by-laws to run such an establishment. There are licences for different kinds of businesses, and people cannot run a place of entertainment without a licence,” he said.
Mofokeng said it was up to the law and municipal processes to take their course.
Daily News