Die Antwoord accused of child abuse, grooming by adopted ex-son Tokkie
Content warning: This story includes references to sexual and physical abuse that might be disturbing for some readers.
“The darkest moments of my childhood is me seeing back everything that I actually did experience, and the worse part is that my own adoptive parents could have fucking killed me in that type of manner. I was scared… that ruined me,” Die Antwoord‘s ex-son Gabriel “Tokkie” du Preez disclosed in a newly released interview filmed by the group’s long-time director, Ben Jay Crossman. Crossman originally met Tokkie, a precocious, aspiring actor at 9-years-old, when Tokkie was walking home from school in his hometown of Fietas, Vrededorp, Johannesburg. After this initial meeting, during which Crossman took Tokkie’s photo, Die Antwoord’s Ninja and Yolandi would go on to adopt Tokkie as a foster child in 2013. Later, he’d take on a starring role in many of their controversial music videos.
The interview, which was uploaded to Crossman’s Youtube channel on April 19 and later surfaced on South African news network News24, details a childhood full of violence, grooming, and many serious allegations of child abuse against Die Antwoord, including neglect, exposure to pornography, drugs, and blood rituals. Tokkie attributes his decision to shed light on his experiences to his concern for his 14-year-old sister Meisie, who is technically still in Die Antwoord’s custody, though she is currently living with another family in Johannesburg at the moment.
In the exclusive interview, Tokkie detailed a childhood allegedly fraught with child abuse, often enacted by himself, Meisie, and his brother Adriaan. Many times while in Ninja and Yolandi’s custody, Tokkie was rewarded for committing crimes, behaving badly, and getting into physical altercations, he reports. He notes one traumatic event in which the pair congratulated him for repeatedly stabbing his own brother and then making him relive the trauma by starring him in a music video based on the violent accident, “DntTakeMe4aPoes.”
“They rewarded me for being bad…For Ninja and them them to congratulate me on doing crime, that’s not good. Bro, I could’ve been in jail how many times for attempted murder, even for just stabbing my brother. I went to visit my brother in the hospital the next day, with pipes in him taking out blood from the internal bleeding, and that hurt me,” Tokkie said. “I started crying and just left immediately…Even now I dream about it. I can’t get rid of it, it haunts me.”
Tokkie says he was also given weed and mushrooms, and constantly surrounded by people abusing other hard drugs. He alleges that his adopted mother Yolandi repeatedly asked him to stay in her bedroom with her, forcing the child to look at her naked body. Several times, Tokkie and sister Meisie were taken to a shoddy, makeshift “hospital” to get blood drawn for rituals. Both children were allegedly forced to participate in blood rituals wearing nothing but underwear, soot, and blood and skin prosthetics. Additionally, both children were told to undress completely and go into a sauna with their adoptive parents, as well as other naked adults, on various occasions.
“What I’m afraid of now is that Ninja asks my sister to get undressed in front of him every time he gets her new clothes. He asks her to change in front of him. Like, really? I told the parents looking after Meisie right now that I don’t want Meisie going to Cape Town…Anything can happen to her,” Tokkie said.
The pair’s now 20-year-old ex-son is currently living at his late mother’s home in Fietas with his brother Adriaan, after two years of no contact with Ninja and Yolandi. Tokkie and his brother are currently attempting to build a safe and nurturing home for their sister by refurbishing the property their mother left behind after she died from cancer in 2015. Tokkie often posts on Instagram about the home’s cleanup and about his aspirations to get into modeling and acting in the near future.
In a comment to News24, Crossman expressed regret for “not speaking out earlier” regarding the extent of abuse he witnessed under Ninja and Yolandi’s care, attributing his hesitation to their fame and lifestyle, which he said blinded him to the reality of what was occurring. Crossman has allegedly deposed a sworn affidavit and said he would be willing to testify against Tokkie’s former adoptive parents. News24 reports that Die Antwoord’s only official response to a detailed list of allegations against them—which came through their agent Scumeck Sabottka from MCT-Agentur in Berlin—was: “Die Antwoord don’t agree with Tokkie’s statements.”
Watch the full interview below.
Featured image: Ben Jay Crossman