uMhlanga strip club owner fights back
The owner of an uMhlanga strip club says he is planning on suing the ward councillor and the city.
SHAUN Russouw, the the man behind Teasers and the owner of the Diamond Grill & Lounge in uMhlanga, says he has done nothing wrong. The Prestondale resident told the Northglen News in a candid interview yesterday that he was indeed running a strip club on Lagoon Drive, but insisted he was no different to other businesses who advertise or sell sex toys or adult content.
The 47-year-old said he would be hauling uMhlanga ward councillor, Heinz De Boer, to court, together with the eThekwini Municipality, who he says he will be suing for loss of income. Last week De Boer said that central uMhlanga, and particularly Lagoon Drive, was a family-orientated holiday destination and that a strip club would not be tolerated.
The Business Licensing Department of the city fined Russouw R2 000 for not having a licence to run a strip club. Now Russouw is refusing to pay. He said: “I am not going pay – I want to go to court over this matter.”
Russouw said the strip club (previously Gordon’s Pub) was discreet and bothered no one. He insisted he had the appropriate licensing.
“The municipality has argued that I don’t have the paperwork or licence to operate a strip club. Yet I’ve been zoned as intermediate commercial as well as transitional. No one wants to talk to me, and I have the same licence as a nightclub in uMhlanga as well as another adult business in the area.
“I’m operating a strip club but it’s discreet; it bothers no one and there’s no noise. I was under the impression that nothing was wrong until they fined me twice within the space of two weeks,” he said.
Russouw also blamed De Boer for the raids, saying there was a vendetta against him.
However, De Boer denied the allegations and said he was merely acting on behalf of the residents he served, as he was mandated to do.
“I cannot instruct any municipal official to go to a premises and fine them for being in contravention of the law. This notion of me orchestrating a vendetta against Mr Russouw is childish. My responsibility is to the residents. The simple fact is that, despite attempts to blur the lines by suggesting he operates under the same guise as other shops that sell sex toys and adult content, this is not true.
“There is a clear distinction. It’s important all official investigations take place, but I can say without a doubt that the venue does not have either town planning approval or a business licence to operate as a strip club,” de Boer said.
