WATCH: Penny Lebyane calls Arthur Mafokate ‘poster boy for sexual grooming’

Broadcaster Penny Lebyane has dared to go where few would tread after posting a video in which she comments on the existence of sexual predators in the South African entertainment industry.

In a video posted to Twitter, Lebyane labelled kwaito king Arthur Mafokate “the poster boy of this sexual grooming thing in South Africa” before going on to state there were many like him, both male and female, who operated in the shadows of the South African entertainment industry as well as in politics.

This is in the wake of the revelations made in producer Dream Hampton’s docu-series titled Surviving R. Kelly.

According to Lebyane, what qualifies Mafokate as the poster boy is his various public relationships with the young women signed to his music label 999 Records (pronounced triple nine).

Mafokate has previously been linked to young artists under his label such as Queen Iyaya (with whom he had a child), Thulisile “Chomee” Madihlaba, and most recently Busisiwe “Cici” Twala.

Lebyane said: “We can call Arthur, he can take us through what happened, that’s all good and well. But for me, Arthur is like a big bus or a poster that we constantly look at, meanwhile behind the bus and behind the poster there’s a politician, a station manager, a programs manager, a woman producer, an agent, a spokesperson… somebody, who is an enabler in the big cult, whatever thing you want to call this thing where women and young men are exploited sexually for favours on sets, in newsrooms, in radio stations, in marketing departments.”

She went to say that people sexually exploit others in their “early years” in the industry and go on to build an image or a brand of themselves as a hard worker and a good person while their careers are built on said exploitation.

She ends off the video by stating this new powerful position that the predators put themselves in makes it even harder for victims to speak out as their claims will either be dismissed as something that everyone else had to go through or as lies based on the public image the predator has built for themselves.

Watch the full video below:

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