Naked search at Sun City leaves cleaners in tears
Resort claims it was women’s decision to strip
THREE cleaners at Sun City claim they were made to strip naked after guests alleged that R6 000 had been stolen from their unit at the resort’s Vacation Club apartments on New Year’s Day.
A tearful Doreen Motaung, 50, told the Sunday Times she felt humiliated and violated.
“I have been working here for 12 years with a clean record but what happened to me on New Year’s Day will haunt me for the rest of my life. I was forced to expose myself in front of a young [female] security guard who is almost the same age as my child,” she said.
However, Sun City claims the women voluntarily undressed during a pat-down in privacy.
“[A strip-search] would have been contrary to Sun International’s policy,” said spokesman Michael Farr.
Motaung said the guests who accused Basetsana Molote, Bertah Moswane and her of theft also verbally abused them using racial slurs.
“I am so traumatised and I can’t sleep at night,” she said.
Moswane, who cleaned the guests’ rooms on New Year’s Day, said they were in the room while she cleaned.
“They gave me R10 as a tip and asked me to tell Doreen, who had cleaned their room a day before, to come for her tip.”
Motaung said she went to the unit, where the guests offered her a Coke and gave her R20. Then they asked who else had cleaned the room because money had gone missing.
She said there were about 10 guests in the two-bedroom unit.
Security officers were called and Moswane and Molote — who had been working on the same floor — were summoned.
The women said a row then broke out.
“They [the guests] accused us of stealing money from their room, saying black people are thieves,” said Moswane, 33, who has been working at Sun City for eight years and has never before been accused of theft.
Molote, 37, who has worked at Sun City for five years, said she was traumatised by the verbal abuse.
“The guests were swearing at us, calling us names like ‘f***ing bitches’. One of them claimed she was a magistrate and that she was going to send us to jail for 10 years.”
The women said they were taken to a bathroom in the unit and searched. Moswane said she was stripped naked and forced to squat.
“The door was wide open. Some of the guests saw us naked. What they did to us is inhumane and a gross violation of our rights. I resisted when the guard told me to strip. She even forced me to bend after taking off my panties.”
She said the security guard told them she had received “strict instructions from above” to strip them.
“Doreen and I went to the police on Wednesday to submit additional statements.”
North West police spokesman Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone confirmed police were investigating a case of crimen injuria.
Farr said an internal investigation was under way.
“Our security service provider has told us that the three ladies in question were not asked to strip. [They] were requested, one at a time, to accompany a female security officer into a bathroom for a standard pat-down search.
“Regrettably, two of the ladies decided . . . of their own accord to remove their clothes immediately while the other lady, upon entering the bathroom, asked if she should take off her clothes and was told not to by the female security officer. Despite this, the lady elected to unbutton her blouse.”
He said the alleged theft was reported to the police and that Sun City’s group surveillance and security manager was conducting an internal investigation into all elements of the matter, including the use of polygraph technology.
“No money was found to be in the possession of the three ladies. We do not know if the guests, highly agitated at the time, apologised to the three ladies,” he said.