Top hotel food fight Couple, guests kicked out for ‘unpaid’ breakfast
Now DA leader threatens to fight decision on Dianne
ABIG-SPENDING Joburg businessman and his associates had their holiday at Suncoast Hotel and Towers brought to an abrupt end this week over the price of a breakfast.
The hotel’s general manager, Adrian Perry, allegedly accused Jasmina Govender, the wife of millionaire businessman Eugine Govender, and their overseas guest, a doctor, of “stealing breakfast”.
During an explosive argument on the patio of the hotel’s Jeera Restaurant on Tuesday, Perry is alleged to have told Jasmina Govender: “You Indians come here to steal our food.”
This was denied by the hotel’s communications management.
Eugine Govender became embroiled in the row and allegedly slapped Perry.
A woman hotel employee was also allegedly assaulted with a chair by Govender when she tried to restrain the businessman from behind.
Perry responded by having Govender, his wife, and their guests – Dr Namrata Reddy, a specialist surgeon, her husband Rajesh Reddy (Govender’s business partner) and their two young children – evicted from the hotel.
He and the woman employee have pressed charges of common assault with the SAPS.
The manager also blacklisted Govender, which effectively meant he could not stay at any Tsogo Sun establishment, the hotel group to which Suncoast is affiliated.
Jasmina Govender said she and her husband were “highly embarrassed” by the altercation and subsequent blacklisting and were preparing to challenge the move legally.
“Why is Tsogo Sun accommodating Perry’s racist acts?” she asked.
She claimed that during their stay at Suncoast, they noticed Perry had displayed racist tendencies towards black guests.
Govender said she and her husband had been regular guests at Suncoast since it opened in 2006 and their stays had cost hundreds of thousands of rand.
“We usually book with Suncoast during the festive period and entertain guests there,” she said.
Their latest booking was made in May. They checked in on December 22 and were to depart on January 9.
“Our accommodation alone for our 19-day stay, including our guests from India and their children, cost R146 000. We spent up to R2 000 on each meal at the hotel at times. So why would we want to steal breakfast worth R200?” asked Jasmina.
On how the trouble started, Jasmina said Dr Reddy and her children had tried to have breakfast at the restaurant and had been turned away by Perry.
He allegedly told the doctor that breakfast had already been served in their room and so they had to pay for the meal in the restaurant.
“He was rude and arrogant to the doctor, who is a respected person. When she complained to me about his conduct, I approached him.
“He screamed at me and he said, ‘You Indian people come here and steal my food’.
Govender said her husband then tried to speak to Perry, but he would not listen.
Other families staying at the hotel also disapproved of Perry’s conduct during the incident, Govender claimed.
Govender, his wife and their four guests are continuing their holiday at an uMhlanga hotel.
Attorney Azgar Ally Khan said his client, Eugine Govender, had been questioned briefly about the incident by the police and Govender had instructed him to lodge an application with the Equality Court about the racist comments.
“I will also write to the Tsogo Sun Group about my client’s blacklisting,” Khan said.
The group’s head of communications, Priya Naidoo, confirmed two staff had been attacked in the breakfast room of the Suncoast Hotel over an alleged disagreement about a meal payment and said charges had been laid against Govender.
Naidoo said Govender had been blacklisted because “we do not condone any abusive or violent behaviour towards our staff ”.
She also denied Perry had made any racist utterances.
“We (dispute) any allegations of racist behaviour by our staff during the incident,” said Naidoo. DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard may have had her expulsion from the party suspended but her future within the party still hangs in the balance.
A disgruntled leader of the party told the Sunday Tribune that plans were afoot to appeal against the decision that saw her expulsion reversed claiming that the appeal process was “flawed”.
Kohler Barnard was fired after she shared a Facebook post praising apartheid-era president PW Botha. She appealed against her expulsion. Last week the Legal Federal Commission ruled the ending of her membership had been suspended “for the duration of the fifth Parliament”, which is until May 2019.
The disgruntled high-ranking member cited a string of irregularities, including that: “It is the first time in the history of the DA that a plea bargain is granted to someone who was accused of such a serious offence. I’m confused why a plea bargain was granted to someone who pleaded guilty. It is pretty obvious that people are going well out of their way to protect Dianne.”
Another bone of contention was the bringing forward of the date of the appeal from January 14 or 15.
“They know that we are in a festive mood and some of our members are out of the country. The big question is why they decided to hear the appeal in December. This was a wellthought-out strategy.”
Chairwoman of the legal committee, which heard the appeal, Glynnis Breytenbach, said: “The processes were in accordance with the laws of the party.”
She said bringing the date of the appeal forward was due to the issue of availability.
James Selfe, who is the chairman of Fedex, the DA’s highest decision-making body, said that party members who had grievances must use the party’s internal channels to voice their concerns.
According to the commission, Kohler Barnard’s reinstatement was on condition that:
She not be found guilty of transgressions such as those she has been convicted of during the period of suspension.
She pay a fine of R20 000 to an NGO that did work in the field of reconciliation and restitution among persons disadvantaged by the apartheid government before the end of February.
She resign from all elected positions in the party, except her position in the National Assembly, and that she not stand for (re-)election to such position(s) for the duration of the suspension.
She attend, as a caucus member, a presentation on the safe and responsible use of social media to be presented to the DA caucus.
KZN party leader, Zwakele Mncwango, who was fingered in her demise said he wanted to “clear the air” about his involvement in the case.
Mncwango admitted that he supplied the disciplinary committee with the thread of e-mails between him and Kohler Barnard.
He said he was called as a witness because he was the first person who ordered Kohler Barnard to remove the post.
When asked about the prospects of the DA in the local government elections this year, he said: “It’s not going to be easy for us and we need to transform ourselves as a party.”
Mncwango hit back at detractors saying they had deliberately misled the public about his involvement. But, he was not perturbed.
“I’m the kind of leader who would rather be hated for telling the truth than be praised for lies,” he said.
He said he was pinning his hopes on the DA’s councillors to revive the party in black areas to repair the “damage” done by the Kohler Barnard saga.
Kohler Barnard could not be reached for comment.