Panel to investigate racial spat at Spur

RESTAURANT chain Spur Corporation has announced several initiatives since a racism incident at one of its establishments last month.

A Facebook video went viral showing a black woman in a confrontation with a white man, allegedly over a spat between their respective children in the play area of Texamo Spur at The Glen Shopping Mall in Joburg.

In a statement yesterday, Spur chief executive Pierre van Tonder apologised “unreservedly” to South Africans for the incident.

He announced that Professor Elmien du Plessis from North West University’s Faculty of Law will convene a panel “for an in-depth investigation into all relevant aspects of the incident”.

The panel will be independent and have full access to the facts and footage of the event, Van Tonder added.

“Such an investigation will take time to conclude its work, and although we have impressed the need for urgency upon Prof Du Plessis, it is important that she and the convened panel have the time to do a proper investigation,” he said.

“Additional details about the panellists and timeline will be made public in the coming weeks.”

Lebohang Mabuya, the woman who posted the video, told The Star last month that she was at the restaurant celebrating her god-daughter’s birthday with five other children when the “aggressive man” came towards them to complain about her child beating up his daughter. She added that she had to speak up “whatever the consequences”.

“I was so scared but I told myself what should happen must happen, but I won’t allow myself to be disrespected like that. If he had an issue, he should have approached restaurant management, not me. I felt disrespected as a black woman,” she said.

Spur said yesterday it would “continue to move swiftly to provide key personnel with the necessary conflict resolution skills”.

‘It will have full access to facts and footage’