Sun City ‘stripper’ bares all
“We are just professional dancers doing our jobs. The labels are hurting us”
One of the scantily dressed dancers who made headlines for their controversial performance at Johannesburg Central Prison on June 21 has slammed their description as strippers.
Busi Mahlangu of Sexy Lingerie and Boys from Mofolo in Soweto claimed that their show at the prison was being used to settle scores against the head of the facility.
Pictures of three girls dancing in revealing clothes in front of male inmates during a Youth Month celebration event held at the prison circulated on social media at the weekend, causing an uproar.
They also raised questions about security in SA jails.
In one picture, two women can be seen dancing with inmates in the prison courtyard while wardens looked on.
Prison management is now in the process of disciplining 13 officials in connection with the incident.
Mahlangu said they were not strippers but a group of freelance dancers who work for well-known recording artists.
The group claimed they were not paid for the prison event organised by its sports, cultural and recreational team.
“We are professional street dancers and we had gone there on invitation,” Mahlangu said.
“We were a group of three girls and three guys and the pictures that are circulating only show me and another female dancer. We were not even aware that someone was taking pictures of us and we are shocked that we are now being called strippers.
“This has affected us very badly because this is our work and we get paid for it. This will affect our reputation because we also get international bookings,” she said.
“Someone took advantage of the situation and manipulated it to suit the power struggle that is currently going on there.”
A man claiming to be her father, who is serving a life sentence at the prison, was also shown in the widely circulated suggestive pictures.
He said: “In one of these pictures I was dancing with my daughter and being happy to see her but it came across as if I was perving over her and that she was a stripper.”
Cassius Tlhotlhalemaje, a male member of the group and an internationally acclaimed choreographer, said their routine took about nine minutes to complete and that the inmates in the picture only joined them on stage afterwards.
“We were about to leave when the prisoners and other officials gave us a guard of honour for our performance; one inmate, whom we know from the past, wanted to take a picture with the girls.
“There was only an official photographer [prison warder] there. There was nothing sexual about it, ” he said.
Another inmate told Sowetan that the pictures were circulated by members of a prison union.
Acting national commissioner of correctional services James Smalberger condemned the incident. “The management of the event should have never allowed this type of explicit entertainment... This type of conduct is unacceptable... particularly in the correctional facility where security is of paramount importance.
“We want to apologise to the citizens of SA for this incident which is very disturbing.”
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has ordered an investigation into the matter and that progress would be made public on Friday.
There was nothing sexual about the show