South African group Die Antwoord have been accused of a homophobic hate crime.
A video has surfaced appearing to show the duo attacking Andy Butler of Hercules & Love Affair, before shouting: “Run, fa**ot, run! Run for your life b*tch.”
The group's Ninja then appears to concoct a story of Andy Butler sexually assaulting a young girl, while band mate Yolandi seems to feign tears.
The video was shot at Adeleide's Future Music festival, and was uploaded by Ben Jay Crossman, Die Antwoord’s former videographer – it was then taken down, but has been re-uploaded several times since.
As a result, Die Antwoord have been pulled from several festival line ups.
LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019 LINEUP UPDATE!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Die Antwoord will no longer be performing at Louder Than Life. The rest of the epic lineup remains the same. Let the countdown to 3 days of rock continue!
: https://t.co/1CfDkjLlR2 pic.twitter.com/t2A5KImmIc
— LouderThanLife (@LTLFest) August 14, 2019
In response, Die Antwoord's Ninja wrote on Facebook that the video had been "cleverly edited" to appear like a hate crime.
"This fight had nothing to with the fact that this guy was gay," he wrote. "We dont [sic] care about people’s sexual preference. Our DJ and best friend DJ HITEK is gay, and alot [sic] of people in our crew are gay."
The statement does not include an apology for using the word 'faggot'.
Andy Butler has yet to comment on the video.