Statement issued by Spur following racial incident that went viral on social media:
Spur Corporation would like to issue an unequivocal apology to Lebohang Mabuya and her family for the incident that took place at the Texamo Spur at The Glen Shopping Centre in Johannesburg on Sunday 19 March 2017.
We have reviewed our CCTV footage of the incident and can confirm that Ms Mabuya’s version of events is accurate; the footage shows that her child was grabbed by the male customer in an aggressive manner and his actions are unacceptable.
We affirm our decision to ban the male customer from our stores, physical aggression towards our customers, particularly against women and children will not be tolerated. We acknowledge that the staff and management of the store did not sufficiently assist Ms Mabuya. We have addressed this with the store management and we are reviewing our internal procedures to ensure that restaurant staff are better equipped to manage an incident such as this. We also recognize that Ms Mabuya apologised in recent media statements for her inappropriate language used in this incident.
Says Pierre van Tonder; “We will be talking to Ms Mabuya directly, at her convenience, and will apologise for what she and her family experienced. We will also offer her and her family trauma counselling and any other support where we can. I would like to again make it very clear that as an organisation we do not condone any forms of violence against women or children, irrespective of the circumstances.
As an organisation we have learnt a valuable lesson and it is my priority at this stage to ensure that should something like this happen again, our staff will be sufficiently prepared.”
Spur Steak Ranches on Tuesday banned a White male customer from all its chain restaurants after he was involved in a altercation with a Black female patron at one of its restaurants in Johannesburg.
The heated exchange, in front of small children, which included profanities happened at Texamo Spur at The Glen Shopping Mall, south of Johannesburg, on Sunday. The incident was captured on video and has since gone viral on social media.
In a statement on Tuesday, Spur said it was “very disappointed” that children were exposed to “this type of behaviour” and assured the public and its customers that it would not be taking the incident lightly.
“The man in the video is not welcome at any Spur restaurant nationally. We do not condone any forms of violence against women or children, irrespective of the circumstances,” Spur said.
The female patron, who is a nurse employed by the City of Johannesburg, posted a video of the altercation on Facebook. She said she was disappointed with how the restaurant staff and management handled the incident.
She was having a meal with her family and several kids at the restaurant when the incident occurred. They had been celebrating the birthday of one of the children.
In the video a man is seen approaching the woman’s table and can be heard hurling insults. He accuses her child of hitting his daughter. She stands up and takes the man and a verbal exchange ensued.
The White male threatens to “klap” her if she did not discipline her child. He appears to be retrained by his partner. They head for the exit but suddenly the man turns back, grabs and lifts the table causing plates to fall to the ground.
Other patrons step in and calm the man down down until he leaves.
“And this was suppose to be a birthday lunch for a three-year-old … and this is what transpired at The Glen Spur … Disappointed with the spur staff and manager,” posted the woman.
Spur said it had investigated the incident after being alerted to the video.
“Upon viewing the video content that’s been circulated on Social Media we are shocked at the adults for behaving in the manner they did, especially with so many children around. As a family restaurant, Spur does not condone this type of behaviour,” Spur said.
“We have investigated the incident with Texamo Spur staff and management, who expressed that they did in fact try to intervene, but were pushed away numerous times by the angry male customer. As soon as the incident escalated, Texamo Spur staff notified The Glen Shopping Mall security.”
The video of the incident has caused an outpouring of anger on Twitter and Facebook with people wanting Spur to name and shame the offending White male.
– African News Agency (ANA)
