[imagesource:  Instagram / @noeylrain]

Over the course of the past month or so, a series of damning accusations have been levelled against Die Antwoord.

Waddy Jones and Anri du Toit, known around the world as Ninja and Yolandi Visser (or Vi$$er), have been accused of child abuse and exploitation.

The group’s former filmmaker, Ben Jay Crossman, initially led the charge and News24 soon picked up the story, speaking with Crossman as well as a couple who say they have spent time looking after the duo’s biological daughter.

Initially, the group appeared reticent to comment publicly on the allegations. Their German agent said only that they “do not agree with these allegations and there is no comment”.

That silence was broken earlier this morning via an official statement released across social media:

 

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I’ve picked out a few sections from there to highlight:

Due to Ninja & Yolandi’s wild stage personas and psychologically penetrative music videos, Die Antwoord have been accused by their haters for just about every crime known to mankind.

When the ‘woke mind virus’ arrived, Die Antwoord’s controversial status hit another level.

Ah, yes, the old ‘woke’ dig. Sounds similar to Elon Musk’s defence. Back to the statement:

With fame comes stalkers, Die Antwoord’s number 1 stalker being a man called Ben Crossman, an ex-South African currently living in France.

Ben used to work for Die Antwoord as a tour cameraman until he got fired for being permanently stoned on the job…

Ben Crossman, who has had no direct contact with Die Antwoord or their daughter for years, recently went to the police in France and swore an affidavit stating that Ninja & Yolandi’s teenage daughter was in danger and needed to be removed immediately from their care. Ben then contacted the South African Social Services and sent them his sworn affidavid.

The statement goes on to accuse Ben of working together with Adriaan Basson, the editor-in-chief of News24, to get the attention of local social services.

A house visit then followed, with the statement saying social services found that “Sixteen was perfectly safe, that everything was cool, and that there was no need for concern”.

On the group’s website, the statement also addresses Crossman’s interview with Gabriel ‘Tokkie’ du Preez, who was taken in as a foster child by Ninja and Yolandi when he was nine.

Tokkie, who suffers from a rare skin disease called hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, spoke about being treated “like a slave” and says he was exposed to things a child shouldn’t be under their care.

Die Antwoord’s response:

…when Tokkie got older and started taking drugs, Ninja and Yolandi put their foot down and stopped supporting him financially.

Shortly after this Ben Crossman contacted Tokkie and started working with him to create a fake news campaign about Tokkie’s ‘terrible life’ with Die Antwoord that they then posted on YouTube.

The video Ben and Tokkie made has a paypal account attached, so that people can donate money to Tokkie to ‘fix up his house’. However Ben and Tokkie split the paypal donations they receive. Tokkie continues to use the donation money to buy drugs, and Ben, who is unemployed, uses the money to live off.

The statement also says that they are hard at work in the studio “recording hot new tracks soon to be shared with their hyper-intelligent international fan base who can tell the difference between fake news and real life”.

Echoes of a former US president’s favourite buzzwords – tick.

Not to be deterred, News24 then published another article just hours after Die Antwoord’s statement based on interviews with a former assistant-turned-au pair.

The woman, first employed in 2014, backed up previous allegations of neglect and abuse and detailed strange behaviour on Tokkie’s behalf:

Michelle [not her real name] remembered trips to the mall during which a young Du Preez would walk into a store with a toy gun, pretending to be a robber in a heist.

“I had to explain (to the shop assistants) that I work for Die Antwoord and that he is like this because Die Antwoord is messed up like that… They used him in a bunch of videos. They used him for content. I don’t think they were parenting him. They were paying people to parent him.”

She alleges that Ninja and Yolandi would refer to Tokkie and his sister (who was also in their care) as the ‘orphan kids’. She says she stopped working for the family after they asked her to “go into the sauna with them naked”.

You can read that full report here.

An investigation into claims of abuse has been launched by the police’s serial and electronic crimes investigation unit in Gauteng.

[sources:dieantwoord&news24]