Human sushi platters and the battle over bling in SA (News Feature)

By Clare Byrne Nov 3, 2010, 14:43 GMT

Johannesburg - Fair comment? Double standards?

South African trade union boss Zwelinzima Vavi, who has been on a crusade against corruption, last week launched a tirade against a black businessman for spending a reported 700,000 rand (100,000 dollars) on his 40th birthday bash.

Kenny Kunene was 'spitting in the face of the poor' by throwing a decadent sushi orgy, where he and his guests posed for photographs nibbling sushi off the stomachs of shapely semi-naked human platters, Vavi fumed.

'It is the sight of these parties, where the elite display their wealth, often secured by questionable means, that turns my stomach,' the general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions declared.

Unlike the hostesses, who were stretched out on tables so the California rolls didn't roll off, Kunene didn't take it lying down.

The gold mining executive and owner of investment and publishing companies lashed back at Vavi in a open letter, accusing him of patronising blacks and applying double standards.

'I should not have to defend what I spend my money on - a huge milestone in my life - when it's honest money spent on honest fun,' a spitting-mad Kunene wrote.

As a regular himself at parties of the ANC, with which the 2- million-strong COSATU has been in an alliance since the days of apartheid, Vavi was 'no stranger to the good life,' he pointed out.

Plus, an unabashed Kunene added: 'I want to correct your misapprehension that my party cost 700,000 rand. It cost more.'

The war of words, which inevitably raised questions about the use of women as crockery, also told a story about South Africa's relationship with its new black elite.

Since the country gained democracy under Nelson Mandela in 1994, a slew of black business people have amassed considerable riches in mining, finance and other sectors.

At weekends luxury cars are seen bumping over dirt roads into the townships as the local lad who made good for himself returns from the city to visit his family.

The ritual often involves stopping off at the township car wash, where admiring youngsters jostle to buff his rims.

For Vavi, this showiness is a two fingers to the millions of blacks who have been left behind while a politically-connected few reap the economic spoils of democracy.

Kunene's sushi party was well-stocked with ANC members.

For others the debate boils down to one of style. White South Africans, being accustomed to privilege, tend to be more discreet in their spending. The new rich, like new rich everywhere, prefer to flaunt it.

They also spread it around more, according to Eric Miyeni, a columnist with the Sowetan newspaper.

'There is not a single black person who has a salary who is sitting on his own,' Miyeni points out. 'Black families are not nuclear like white families.'

Furthermore, contrary to appearances, blacks still have only a small stake in the economy.

Despite making up 79 per cent of the population black South Africans own only 18 percent of the capital of the top 100 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

It's the way some of the new elite have come by their riches that is starting to rankle with ordinary South Africans.

Vavi, who is fast emerging as the most powerful opposition force in the country, is going after the 'hyenas' - a term he has coined for politicians and business people who feed off state resources, including government contracts.

It's a crusade that has put him on a collision course with the ANC and seen people like Kunene get caught in the crossfire.

'The man (Vavi) must be put where he belongs,' the head of the ANC Youth League Julius Malema warned at the weekend.