Home » Latest Update from Spur – Unequivocal Apology for Female Customer

Latest Update from Spur – Unequivocal Apology for Female Customer

Here is the latest official update from Spur Steak Ranches, issued in the last few minutes (Wednesday 22 March 2017 at lunchtime), concerning the controversy over the incident at one of their Spur branches. This latest statement updates a previous version made yesterday, in connection with the incident between two heated customers – which was videoed […]

By SAPeople
22-03-17 22:44
in Eish!

Here is the latest official update from Spur Steak Ranches, issued in the last few minutes (Wednesday 22 March 2017 at lunchtime), concerning the controversy over the incident at one of their Spur branches.

This latest statement updates a previous version made yesterday, in connection with the incident between two heated customers – which was videoed by another customer, and went viral… creating a racial debate amongst South Africans on and off social media.

Spur Corporation Statement, 22 March 2017

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.”

A picture of the man in the incident will be up in Spurs around South Africa, and he will be asked to leave should he arrive at any Spur establishments.

In Spur’s statement yesterday, there had been no apology to the female customer. In that version, Spur said that after viewing the video content they were “shocked at the adults for behaving in the manner they did, especially with so many children around”, and that staff had tried to intervene but were pushed away by the angry male customer.

The statement said “as soon as the incident escalated, Texamo Spur staff notified The Glen Shopping Mall security”. 

The incident, in which a male customer threatened to ‘klap’ a female customer, apparently occurred after the man said he had seen the woman’s child hitting his child in the head.

Public reaction to the incident has been varied, with Facebook user Emma Mockchops summing up the most common response: “Omg – putting aside the woman’s language (yes she reacted badly, but I would probably have done the same and regretted it afterwards too) – that man is nothing but a bully. Kids do stuff all the time – that is not the way to address it… and I doubt he would have taken the same approach with any man (or possibly even a white woman?).”

Watch Man threatens to klap mother in Spur restaurant

Please note – this video is upsetting.

Spur Mom speaks out after altercation

One South African’s opinion on the ‘Spur Incident’ (Renaldo Gouws)

 

On Twitter

This is a spoof ad and not created by Nando’s: