South African news outlet News24 has published the claims of 20 year old Gabriel “Tokkie” du Preez, who accuses Die Antwoord’s Watkin Jones (Ninja) and Anri du Toit (Yolandi Visser) of child abuse.
Ninja and Yolandi reportedly adopted du Preez after meeting him in 2010 when he was ten years old. As an eleven year old, du Preez appeared in the music video for Die Antwoord’s ‘I Fink U Freeky’. A foster care agreement was signed in 2013, after which du Preez lived with the couple in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Los Angeles.
Du Preez told News24, “They made me feel like I was actually a slave. They adopted me to be a slave. They made me feel like I wasn’t really being loved.” Die Antwoord responded via their agent, Scumeck Sabottka, who said, “Die Antwoord don’t agree with Tokkie’s statements.”
The News24 investigation follows the emergence of a 44-minute video interview with du Preez, posted online by former Die Antwoord film collaborator, Ben Jay Crossman. Crossman has known du Preez for 12 years. In the video, du Preez claims he’s been cut off by Ninja and Yolandi and hasn’t seen them in two years. He’s back living in Vrededorp, Johannesburg, with his younger brother in a decrepit house left behind by their late mother.
Du Preez alleges he was shown pornography as a minor and encouraged to cultivate aggressive and violent thoughts. “They made me believe I was the devil,” he said. He also recalled being called into a room by Yolandi, who was “naked and vomiting all over. She was laying with her legs open like the [sex] doll I had in my room. She called me into the room to call Ninja in the lounge.”
He added, “The worst part was seeing my supposed-to-be mother or adopted mother being naked in a room, drunk… experiencing my mother being drunk, naked and wanting me to spend time with her in the room while she was naked… that I found very disturbing.”
