South Africa’s sushi tycoon, Kenny Kunene, and his business partner, Gayton McKenzie, have swiftly resigned as directors of a number of companies.
“When you’ve been imprisoned, there will always be questions about your right to be a director,” McKenzie said this week. “While it may not be entirely fair, I do understand why these questions continuously crop up. So not acting as a director spares everyone a lot of unneeded angst.”
Responding to a Mail & Guardian question about whether, as ex-convicts, they could be in breach of the Companies Act by holding company directorships, McKenzie said that following the recent troubles of their friend, former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, he and Kunene had realised they might be disqualified from being appointed or acting as company directors. Kunene had already resigned his directorships.
Kunene served six years in jail for fraud and McKenzie seven years for two counts of armed robbery. They met in prison and were both released in 2003. Yengeni, briefly jailed for lying to Parliament about a discount he received on a vehicle, was one of the few high-profile politicians at the opening of Kunene and McKenzie’s ZAR nightclub in Cape Town.
The party, awash with champagne and with sushi served on scantily dressed models, was roundly condemned by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Cosatu. ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, who also attended, later distanced the ANC from the event.
Kunene subsequently said he would drop the publicity stunt of using sushi-laden women and McKenzie said he was not into “that sort of thing anyway”. After leaving jail, Kunene claimed that he was the prisoner who took “poisoned tea” to the legal team appointed to the Jali Commission, which probed abuses in South Africa’s prisons. He said he had warned Jerome Brauns SC that the tea was poisoned.
No crime
“The gangsters in jail gave me a pot of extremely poisonous tea to serve to Jerome Brauns and his legal team, but I had vowed never to do another crime, so I wasn’t about to break that oath by committing a multiple murder,” said Kunene this week. “Jerome and I became friends after this incident.”
Asked how he had apparently managed to make a fortune in the short time since his release from jail, Kunene claimed to have “made millions” from selling McKenzie’s autobiography on his prison years. “Don’t underestimate the value of Gayton’s book. We made millions from it and invested the money in a fish-distribution business, which made more money,” he said.
“Gayton was, and still is, a phenomenally successful motivational speaker. He commands as much as R40 000 to R50 000 per talk, and I was his agent for a few years while we toured the country. Our friendship became incredibly strong, even more so than it had been in prison while we risked our lives to create the video exposing warder corruption.”
Kunene said that after leaving prison, he and McKenzie had become key executives at mining company Central Rand Gold. “The two of us played a strong role in the process of applying for its mining right. Through our efforts, we earned jobs as executives.” Kunene said he was now “making money from throwing parties and events, and this year will be bringing major artists to perform in South Africa.
“I am an equal shareholder with Gayton in our Zimbabwe mining and fuel businesses, which are some of the best in that country,” he said. “The money to fund these projects was raised through solid international investors.” Kunene is listed as a director in Afri-Oz Resources with Nkopane Motseki, a business associate of Duduzane Zuma, although he said the company was being deregistered. Kunene said the business partners had a few income streams.
“At times, we make more from consulting for big mining companies who need help to achieve compliance for their mining rights, at other times we make more money from the club. At the moment, most of our available funds get reinvested in new ventures.
“We are the biggest investors in Zimbabwe, because we believe that Zimbabwe’s revolution is approaching its end and Mugabe will now be working towards leaving a lasting legacy for its people. I count Mugabe among my heroes and that’s why I believe in his country, despite whatever you may read.”
Asked if he counted Malema among his close friends, he said that the youth leader was not a business partner and he did not see him often. “I came to have respect for him though. He has continuously encouraged us to pursue business interests that may have seemed somewhat intimidating and not part of a field black people have traditionally excelled in, such as mining consulting and owning five-star bars.”