Cape Town, South Africa - Controversial South African businessman Kenny Kunene has vowed to stop hosting sushi parties, following a national outcry and protests by the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the party’s women’s league, and the Cosatu trade unions. Kunene came under fire over the weekend after he hosted a lavish party in Cape Town where guests ate sushi (raw fish) off women’s half-naked bodies.

He accepted the party’s condemnation of the practice, and said he understood its reasons.

“Were it not for the work and struggle of these ANC leaders, my leaders, the money that black businesspeople have made since 1994 would not have been possible, and this also applies to me,” said Kunene.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe condemned Kunene’s sushi parties, adding that the ANC was not in the business of nightclubs but was “a revolutionary movement”.

The ANC Women’s League described the act of eating sushi off women’s bodies as “appalling”.

“We call for an immediate stop to this foreign practice because it is an attack on the bodily integrity and dignity of women in our country,” said ANC Women's League spokesperson Edna Molewa. “We cannot allow such an insulting practice to be associated with the ANC or its cadres.”

Pana 03/02/2011