Business tycoon Kenny Kunene, who recently earned the nickname “Sushi King” after his lavish 40th birthday bash last month, is unlikely to get any sympathy from the ruling party, which he calls home, even though the ANC Youth League defended his right to celebrate.
Youth league leader Julius Malema, who attended the party and was pictured with Kunene in weekend newspapers shortly after, had to explain to the party’s national executive committee (NEC), of which he is a member, that he did not actually eat the sushi, served on the bodies of women clad only in their underwear.
The matter came up at the committee’s meeting last weekend.
Malema previously fiercely defended his “right” to party and rubbished critics of the bash after Kunene’s decadence was slammed by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
NEC members said the party was “decadent” and made a “laughing stock” of government campaigns like the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign.
The campaign is set to be launched next week in Cape Town by Minister of Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana.
A senior NEC member told Independent Newspapers the party was condemned as “completely wrong” and attendance of such parties “should not be entertained”, because it created the wrong perception in society and promoted “moral decay”.
“From a liberation point of view it undermines women’s emancipation,” she said.
Another leader who attended the NEC meeting said: “That type of behaviour doesn’t promote morality and good ethics in society.”
The ANC Women’s League spokeswoman and Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said the Women’s League intended engaging the ANC further on the matter.
Kunene did not want to react yesterday. He confirmed that he supported the ANC but was “not sure” whether his membership was up-to-date.
“If there is an issue directly with me, the ANC would have called me and said there is an issue, but at the moment it’s still rumour to me.”
Kunene launched a scathing attack on Vavi in an open letter, telling him to “go to hell” after Vavi said the bash of more than R700 000 at Kunene’s Sandton nightclub ZAR was an insult to the poor. The much talked-about party has spawned copycat parties, most notably by socialite Khanyi Mbau, who threw a similar bash at ZAR, serving sushi off men’s bodies. - Independent on Saturday