Dineo Ranaka responds to 'exploitation' allegations

Media personality and businesswoman Dineo Ranaka has responded to allegations of “exploitation” levelled against her by makeup artist Felicia Zwane.  

In a statement to TshisaLIVE, Felicia alleged that Dineo had tried to backtrack on paying her what she was due for promoting the star's makeup brand, LuvDR in December. 

Felicia said she was contacted by Dineo's team to work at a LuvDR pop-up shop and that her rates were discussed via text. She claimed that after the work was done, Dineo's team gave her the silent treatment when she enquired about payment.  

Dineo alleged in a statement to TshisaLIVE Felicia tried to “extort” from her an amount that was “way beyond” industry rates. 

“We battled getting an invoice out of her because she made an attempt to extort from us what was way beyond industry rates for makeup sampling at our pop-up store. Only on the day of her public rant did we receive an email with an official confirmation of her invoice as well as a compensation fee for her transportation costs.”

The Metro FM DJ claimed they were also investigating theft that allegedly occurred at the same time Felicia worked with them. 

“On the days she worked, R3,000 worth of makeup stock went missing. As a business we have to investigate that. I communicated with her on DM and she tried to get cocky with me and I then left it to my team to resolve.”

Dineo said she was “no newcomer in business” and she prided herself in “working ethically and professionally”.

Felicia labelled Dineo's allegations of missing stock as “questionable”. 

She said she was only informed about missing stock three weeks after the work was done and she demanded her payment. 

“How do you miss stock and not call me in for questioning and then conduct an investigation which shouldn’t have taken that long considering that there are surveillance cameras all over the mall.

“Only when I demanded my payment almost three weeks after, ironically stock that amounts to what I should’ve been paid goes missing. Thirdly, she told me her team will email me with regards to my payment. That’s when they told me to send them an invoice of R1,000 which was not initially what was agreed upon and does not even amount to what I had used for transportation.”

Felicia questioned why Dineo didn't investigate her rates before they finalised the agreement. 

“I feel very exploited and it is disappointing that a woman like Dineo would devalue another woman's hustle and go the extra mile to make false claims,” she added.