Kenny Kunene Bio
Kenny Kunene is a South African businessman, former Secretary-General of the [[Patriotic Alliance (South Africa)|Patriotic Alliance].
While working as a high school English teacher, Kunene opened a pub selling alcohol after work and began engaging in criminal activities including robberies and fraud.
In 1997, he was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme for which he served six years in prison.
After his prison stint, Kunene became a motivational speaker and became active in local politics. He later opened a club called ZAR and became known for throwing lavish parties
In 2011, he drew controversy for hosting “sushi parties” where guest ate sushi off the bodies of half-naked women. In February 2019, Kunene released Yookoo Rides, an “e-hailing“ app.
Kenny Kunene Age
Kenny was born on 21 October 1970. He is 48 years old as per 2019 August.
Kenny Kunene Parents
Kenny Kunene was raised by his mother and grandparents. Kunene’s mother has served as an evangelist and faith healer. While he was growing up near Odendaalsrus his grandmother, a midwife, was the family’s sole breadwinner.
Kunene got involved in student politics in the 1980s and at the age of 15, he was imprisoned for 6 months due to his role in student uprising and protests in the Free State.
Kenny Kunene Wife|Married
Kunene has five children Mpho, Thato, Mosa, Remo and Reemona and he currently lives with three of his children and his wife MaRemo in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Kenny Kunene Career
Kunene attended Marobe Primary School, Rearabetswe Secondary school and Vista University and later became an English and History teacher. Kunene later turned to crime, however, and was imprisoned from 1997 to 2003 after being convicted of running a Ponzi scheme.
While in prison, he often organised parties among the inmates to build goodwill among his fellow inmates and was influential in prison.
Kenny Kunene
After he was released he went to work at Calculus Private School in Bloemfontein and later began working with former bank robber Gayton McKenzie who had since become a motivational speaker.
Kunene and McKenzie then invested in a seafood distribution business. Kunene has also worked as a public relations consultant and lobbyist for mining companies.
In March 2012 the Hawks (special police investigative unit) spokesman McIntosh Polela confirmed that the Hawks have done an investigation into Kunene regarding fraudulent representations to communities and potential shareholders as part of the application for mining rights by Central Rand Gold (CRG).
No charges were, however, ever levelled.
Kunene was a supporter of the African National Congress until 2013 when he wrote a scathing open letter to President Jacob Zuma criticising his leadership. In July 2013, Kunene briefly joined the Economic Freedom Fighters as a high-profile member of the organisation’s “Central Command Team” before resigning from the organisation in August 2013.
In November 2013 Kunene became the Secretary-General of a newly formed political party, the Patriotic Alliance. He left the party in 2014 after the national and provincial elections. Kunene is currently focusing on his businesses including a Smart City Technology Company which has YooKoo Ride an e-hailing Taxi App in South Africa, Public Relations, Government Relations, Skills Training and Development and Mining consulting and Investment.
Kenny Kunene Media
Kunene was the star of South African reality television show So What: Big Money, Big Dreams which aired on e.tv during 2011. In 2013, he appeared in the fourth episode of the British travel documentary television series The Moaning of Life. In April 2014, Kunene was the Roastee of Comedy Central Africa’s Roast of Kenny Kunene. Kunene also owns two online news publications namely WeeklyXpose and AfricaNews 24-7.
Kenny Kunene Music
Kenny Kunene is the owner of New Money Record. In 2012 Kenny Kunene released his own album, ZAR Sushi Mix, a house compilation under his own record company. In December 2010 Kenny Kunene claimed to be bringing Drake and Nicki Minaj to South Africa and Zimbabwe, a claim that was disputed by Nicki Minaj through her Twitter account.
DRAKE’S MINAJ-A-TOUR never took place, Kenny Kunene later successfully brought American artists Lil Kim, Fat Joe, Timbaland, Ciara and DJ Scratch.
Although scheduled to perform in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town; they only performed at the Coco-Cola Dome in Northgate, Johannesburg, it was reported that this was as a result of slow ticket sales “It didn’t make business sense to host concerts where ticket sales were not booming” Kenny Kunene was quoted saying.
Kenny Kunene Letter to President Jacob Zuma
Kenny Kunene wrote an open letter to President Jacob Zuma that was published on 21st June 2013 on The Star Newspaper
Dear President Jacob Zuma…
I’m writing this because I’ve never been more disappointed with the ANC you lead. I was once your fervent supporter, I attended some of those night vigils during your trials, and, like many, I believed you would be the force for changing the youth and the poor desperately need in our country.
Like many others, I donated to your cause when I was called on, and allowed my facilities to be used for ANC and Youth League meetings, sometimes for unusual meetings where your political comeback was planned.
You may wonder what qualifies me to make any kind of political comment. As everyone knows, I’m just a socialite and a businessman, but it’s also no secret I am a hobbyhorse for politicians to ride whenever they want to criticise “crass materialism” and the decay of morals. It’s true, I like to spend, and I’m not an angel, but unlike politicians, I’m not spending taxpayers’ money.
My real point is that, as a socialite and a businessman, I meet many people, including politicians. When they speak to your face, Mr President, they tell you your imperial clothes are very stylish. When they talk to me and feel they are safe from your army of spies, most of them admit that you, the emperor, have no clothes.
The Gupta issue alone should be the last straw for many South Africans. But the extent of how much the Gupta family controls you, and by implication this country, has not even begun to be understood. It’s amazing how terrified most people in the ANC are to speak about this reality because they truly fear you. Even if you’re not in government, tenders are used to inspire fear among people of influence.
Thank God my livelihood is not dependent on tenders. I’ll save you the trouble of trying to find out if I have any tenders so you can cut me out of them. I don’t have any.
You show no loyalty even to those who kept you out of prison. After the Shaiks and Julius Malema, the Guptas must know that you can drop them faster than they could drop your name. In your quest for self-preservation, you have become heartless.
The reason I supported you and your campaign is that you were marketed to us as someone who would unify us and get rid of the politics of fear, but today there’s more fear and more division in the ANC than ever before. In public, you smile and laugh, but in truth, you behave like a monster, a tyrant who will target perceived enemies ruthlessly, and because of that fear few dare to speak openly.
We’d have had yet another Cabinet reshuffle if your wings had not been clipped a little in Mangaung.
Of course, I am not so naive as to blame everything regrettable that happens in the ANC on you. But in my home province, the Free State, the premier, Ace Magushule, imitates your behaviour and even seems to be trying to outdo you in being entangled with the Guptas.
He learnt it from you. He thinks it’s okay to blow R40-million (or R140-million, others say) on a website. It’s not a great website either, by the way.
When even your Kenny Kunene’s start thinking a guy is wasting money shamelessly, you should know how bad it is. Of course, we’d all like to know where that money really went.
This is not what the ANC is or should be. We thought it was bad enough with the Shaiks – but who could have predicted your, and therefore our, wholesale nationalization by the Guptas?
Even your immediate community, your neighbours in Nkandla, have to walk past your ridiculously overpriced palace donated to you by a once-unsuspecting public, knowing how you have your own private clinic they cannot use and their children must play in the dusty streets among the stones, while your compound has an astroturf sports field that cost the taxpayer R3.5-million and costs R100 000 a month to maintain.
Everyone knows the Public Protector’s report will find damning evidence of what went on there – but something must be said now already, in case you find a way to shut her up too.
It’s no wonder the ANC lost the vote in Nkandla. If the people who know you best, the place you are from and where you occupy tribal land, do not trust you enough to vote for you, why should the rest of us?
This ANC is no longer the ANC of John Langa Dube, Oliver Tambo, and other illustrious names. I’m also getting tired of hearing about how the ANC is bigger than any individual.
There are those who are stubbornly loyal to the ANC as if it’s some kind of marriage, who keep the faith that someday the party will return to its roots.
But even if they’re my friends, I can’t enthusiastically join in with the declarations of those who say they will die in coffins wrapped in ANC colours, no matter what, as my former business partner Gayton McKenzie once said to me.
Mr President, I don’t want to be one of those who tell you in fear that you have clothes on when it’s obvious you are completely exposed. I know the dogs will be set on me for saying this, but you have been naked for longer than most of us were willing to admit. And you’re now stripping the ANC of the last shred of its integrity. The world laughs at us.
I love the ANC, or what it’s supposed to be, but I don’t love your ANC. For those of us who care, the question now is, as Vladimir Lenin asked: “What is to be done?”
Kenny Kunene Imprisonment
Kenny Kunene was imprisoned from 1997 to 2003 after being convicted of running a Ponzi scheme. While in prison, he often organized parties among the inmates to build goodwill among his fellow inmates. It is reported he spent ten years locked up. He spent four years awaiting trial before serving his six-year sentence.
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