Legal troubles are piling up for the Zanzou Lounge, a prominent club in Pretoria, Gauteng whose now infamous torture videos have gone viral for depicting extreme human rights violations against young men including sexual abuse and torture.
Now, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has questioned the establishment's ability to operate as a nightclub, claiming it has been illegally doing so.
The political party's Tshwane branch has been looking into whether Zanzou complies with City by-laws, according to a report by eNCA. The news station reported that the inquiry discovered that Zanzou was classified as a Category 1 company, prohibiting it from functioning as a nightclub.
This purportedly implies it has been violating the City of Tshwane's zoning restrictions.
"The DA had the strip closed where all these nightclubs were operating. One of the reasons was that there was a murder that took place which led to the mayor and MEC ensuring that the strip was closed and that the city of Tshwane issued contraventions.
"Zanzou went quite a while without operating. From yesterday (Monday), we discovered that it is not even categorised and zoned correctly. So, the business has been operating illegally," said the DA spokesperson for health, Dikeledi Selowa.
Pablo, a Congolese man responsible for releasing horrific videos taken at Zanzou, posted a new clip on TikTok this Tuesday.
In it, a scared-looking man is begging for his life. The man is wearing a hoodie but is nude from the waist down and is seen on the floor, seemingly pinned down by an individual who has his legs over his chest.
"Do you hear me? I'm a student from the University of Limpopo okay. And I don't want anything from you. I won't do anything to people like you," the victim said, repeating himself.
The South African Human Rights Commission has cautioned netizens to not circulate the distressing videos as it is criminal.
"The Commission strongly urges the public to refrain from sharing or forwarding images and videos depicting violence or abuse on social media platforms. Such actions may constitute serious offences under South African law."
IOL