Only whites allowed at new Beau resort
June 24, 2006 Edition 1
Kashiefa Ajam
"Everyone in this country now has a right to choose, and I choose 'Whites Only'."
South Africa's well-known nudist Beau Brummell is at it again. This time he plans to start a nudist resort on water at the Vaal Dam. He will commission four boats which will sail on the dam, "where people can walk around naked, drink champagne and enjoy themselves". And no gatecrashers will be tolerated, especially if you are not white. "If you are black, coloured, Indian or anything like that, you can't come."
Speaking to The Independent on Saturday this week about his latest venture called "Kaal on the Vaal", Brummell says that in 1993 when he started to allow people of colour into his nudist resort, Beau Valley in Warmbaths, he went bankrupt because his investors and shareholders pulled out. They were unhappy with the mix of people walking around naked at the resort.
"It was a great tragedy. I was left high and dry. I thought I was doing the right thing then. But I was wrong, because I ended up broke. This has absolutely nothing to do with racism. It is business. And this way - by having only white people at my resort - it will be financially viable for me. White people do not want black people ogling them. And anyway, it is not in black people's culture to expose their genitals like that."
So who is coming to the Vaal in September? Brummell says he will invite all of the "old-school" nudists, as well as some new faces. These include, says Brummell, Afrikaans star Steve Hofmeyr, former radio presenter John Berks, e.tv's Deborah Patta and former Miss SA Anneline Kriel, and models Minki van der Westhuizen and Lee-Anne Liebenberg.
Brummell says his antics in the past have led people to think he is racist, but he claims this is not the case.
"I love black people. My son is married to an Indian girl. I would love to have little black grandchildren one day."
A few years ago, Brummell tried to revive Beau Valley and attempted to open a "whites only" nudist resort in KZN. The South African Human Rights Commission intervened and that was the end of it.
