* DISCLAIMER: at this point we have spoken to neither party involved with this case, and are merely reporting from publicly available references. As always, we remain unbiased. We will attempt to get in contact with both parties for direct statements. Never believe everything you read on the internet. *
A Brisbane-based rapper called Zheani Sparkes has released a track called The Question on YouTube, accusing Die Antwoord‘s Ninja of rape, pedophilia and distributing explicit images, and naming his bandmate Yo-landi Visser as an accomplice, grooming her online before bringing her to South Africa.
This is a difficult story to get one’s head around.
Yo-landi posted the following to her Instagram a week ago – this was the first we had heard of the accusations:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu3UEG6FyhH/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu3UZ7hFYNG/
Here’s what we do know: Die Antwoord/Yo-landi did have images of Zheani on their social media accounts when this all allegedly went down in 2013. One commenter on Zheani’s Instagram said: “Just casually seeing you on DIE ANTWOORD’S Facebook page omg!!!🙀🙀🙀” You can see the post they commented on here. From the looks of it, though, all traces of the posts (and Zheani) have been removed from Die Antwoord’s social media accounts.
Okay, so that’s a bit weird. But understandable given the current situation.
Zheani posted the following to her Instagram in 2013, evidently right before she got on the plane to South Africa:
https://www.instagram.com/p/dEIPpQks8W/
She doesn’t look like she was in any way coerced to get on the plane. But, she was a fan, had been contacted by the band on social media (we’ve seen screen shots that place the initial contact from Yo-Landi on Instagram) and had been flirting with Ninja online. Any fan would be excited by having flights and passports organised by a band they look up to – right?
Okay – so what happened?
We’re going to use screenshots from The Question (so titled because Die Antwoord means ‘The Answer’) to help explain this one.
‘Watkin’ refers to Ninja’s real name – Watkin Tudor Jones.
According to the video, here’s some of the conversation between Zheani and Ninja ahead of her trip:
Whilst in South Africa, Zheani was tattooed by Ninja, in a traditional stick and poke style, with ‘Stoner’ and ‘Witch’ inside her elbows:
https://www.instagram.com/p/dZQtfjEsy0/
Ninja had referred to Zheani as his ‘stoner witch’ in previous communication:
Ninja later referred to the tattoos as a ‘spell’ he had cast on her:
It definitely appears that the band were following Zheani’s socials. About a year after returning from South Africa and having no contact with the band, Zheani was flown to New York to model with Cara Delevingne. Then, this happened:
Yo-landi alluded in her Instagram post to ‘nude selfies’ taken by Ninja and Zheani (who, by the way, was 20 when all of this happened) – in the clip she shows screenshots of emails between Ninja and District 9 actor Sharlto Copely, whom Ninja met on the Johannesburg film set for Chappie:
This email exchange appears to back up tabloid claims from 2014 (as published in full here): “It is claimed by two sources that Ninja sent explicit photos – in the act of having fellatio performed on himself – to at least one female member of the set. Several sources say he hit on female cast and crew, even in front of his partner Yo-landi. He invited them to Cape Town “telling them they would get a hotel room and hire prostitutes to join them”, said a source.”
Yo-landi also said she only met Zheani in passing, taking a selfie together which could be this one posted on Zheani’s Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/p/dqnOCZEs-t/
However, Yo-landi was following and commenting on Zheani’s Instagram account before Die Antwoord was in contact with her – and there’s screen shots:
Yo-landi followed up with an email:
It’s also alleged Ninja wrote the songs Sex and Ugly Boy about Zheani. Zheani posts, among others, these screenshots in her video – apparently imposed over video featuring handwritten notes/lyrics:
There is plenty more to this story. And, obviously, there are two sides. We aren’t saying Zheani has fabricated anything to kick start her career, nor are we saying the allegations against Ninja or Yo-landi are true. The fact is we just don’t know, at this stage. A source close to Zheani, who knew her around the 2013/14 period when she went to South Africa and worked with Die Antwoord as a PA on their Big Day Out appearances (something confirmed by Yo-landi in her Instagram post) has told Girl the allegations have been brought forward after hearing rumours of the band being booked to perform at this year’s Splendour In The Grass festival. There is nothing (that we can find) to back up this rumoured booking.
We’ll keep you in the loop as this story develops. In the meantime, you can watch Zheani’s video here:
girlatarockshow.com 