Local councillor reveals his alter ego

Anru Meyer is a councillor for wards 4 and 30 with more than just a talent for addressing potholes and power outages.

He has a whole alter ego that is dedicated to his work beyond the wards.

On September 24, at the DA party launch at Freedom Park, Meyer decided it was time to let his party colleagues in on his little secret: he is also the larger-than-life Blue Da Leblu, Pretoria’s first queen in politics.

Blue Da Leblu was born at Beefcakes, a local drag spot in Pretoria, where she saw other drag performers for the first time. She was immediately hooked and dove into learning the ropes.

“When I was little I used to try on my mother’s heels, not because I wanted to be a woman, but because I thought it was fun.”

After seeing the show at Beefcakes, she slowly learned how to do make-up for herself, how to shop for clothes and dress herself up.”

Blue Da Leblu was born, but far from perfect. “I had to ask myself what Blue wants to achieve, who she is, what type of drag queen she wants to be.”

After Blue Da Leblu’s reception at the party launch, Meyer wanted to take her further. “Solly Msimanga was very excited, I was placed up on stage, and my party members were really excited to meet Blue. They really loved it. The caucus chair said they were hoping to see Blue Da Leblu at the council meeting.”

And that’s exactly what Meyer did.

At the next council meeting, Meyer became the first-ever drag queen councillor to sit in a council meeting. “I decided, what’s the worst that could happen? I could be asked to go change. But it was all fine, I was completely accepted.

“That was the final decision to say I would be a queen in politics. Blue Da Leblu will be the new refreshed queen in politics, bringing comedy, but also trying to bring a message across.”

Meyer said it is important to represent the variety of ways people can express themselves and identify themselves. “Our freedom of expression was a hard-won right, and one we should always protect.

“There is still a long way to go. I hope that Blue will help that journey along, in terms of education, in terms of getting people to understand the LGBTQIA+ community as a whole, understand the struggles and fights that we still need to get through,” Meyer said.

“We live in a new South Africa that should protect us, but in reality that is not the case. Pride is for the community to come together and build our safe space. Making the statement to say ‘this is who we are, we are not here to fight or take over, we are not forcing it down your throat, we just are.

“[Pride] is a space we invite people who are afraid to be who they are, who are afraid they will not be supported or safe for being who they are,” he said.

“If you are gay, it’s okay. The fight has been fought to get where we are, and that fight will continue. But also, [Pride is] to celebrate what we have achieved, the sacrifices that have been made to win us our freedom to be who we are without pretending we are something else.”

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