Mayor to probe restaurant racism claim

Cape Town-150321.This morning, the Executive Mayor of the Cape Town, Patricia de Lille announced the Mayor’s Inclusive City campaign – a forum aimed at giving Cape Town residents the opportunity to engage frankly about racial issues. Reporter: Yvette van Breda. Picture: jason boud

Cape Town-150321.This morning, the Executive Mayor of the Cape Town, Patricia de Lille announced the Mayor’s Inclusive City campaign – a forum aimed at giving Cape Town residents the opportunity to engage frankly about racial issues. Reporter: Yvette van Breda. Picture: jason boud

Published Apr 16, 2015

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Cape Town - Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille has started an investigation into claims of racist treatment at the upmarket Aubergine restaurant after a group of guests claimed they were denied a table because of their race.

But the owner of the Gardens eatery has vehemently denied these allegations, saying they have “come out of the blue” and the restaurant had never and would never discriminate against its guests.

Instead, he said the guests had just misunderstood the restaurant’s booking and deposit policies, said the German owner, Harald Bresselschmidt.

These accusations first gained traction on Monday after Nelusha Shunmoogam-Gounden made a post on the restaurant's Facebook page. She wrote that she had phoned at around noon to book a table for six people for that evening but was told she would need to put down a deposit of R600 to secure a place on the guest list.

“I told the lady who took my call,” who Bresselschmidt would later explain was the restaurant’s accountant, “that I was unable to make a payment since I was not in my office or near a bank.”

They asked her for her credit card details, but she “was not comfortable giving that out to her”. “She said fine and put down the phone. Unbeknownst to me, my brother had called a few minutes before me and was told there was no availability.”

Shunmoogam-Gounden told him about the deposit, and that’s when they decided to have a white friend phone to make the same reservation. “Suddenly we were not confused anymore after the white female secured the booking my brother was denied and was not asked to pay the deposit.”

The post sparked threats to boycott the restaurant as other users began writing on the page. They accused the restaurant of being racist and called on Shunmoogam-Gounden to report the incident to the Human Rights Commission.

Speaking to the Cape Argus, Bresselschmidt confirmed that they had received the phone call to book a table at 11.45am.

“It was a big table, six people, it meant it would be one of our nice ones right there in the middle. Our problem is if guests don’t come, we lose a lot of money. It happens too often,” he said, sounding tired.

It’s why the restaurant decided to start asking for a deposit for bookings for six or more guests.

“So when they phoned we said they needed to pay a deposit. But the lady didn’t want and that was it.”

At 1.30pm, after the accounts manager who had answered the phone previously had left, and the bookings manager had arrived to start preparing for service, they received the call from the “white female”.

“My bookings manager now saw we still had a lot of empty tables and service was starting soon. She was just happy to fill a table and didn’t ask for a deposit.”

Bresselschmidt said the next moment the bookings manager received a phone call and was verbally abused by a man calling her a “racist” and a “pig”.

 

“She was completely shocked, she didn't know why this was happening.”

The owner said the restaurant has never excluded guests based on race. He said that the restaurant often had an ethnically diverse clientele.

“It just doesn’t make business sense to turn people away. We would go out of business.”

 

He added that he has been married to an Indian woman for 20 years.

Attempts to make contact with Shunmoogam-Gounden were unsuccessful. However, Zara Nicholson, spokeswoman for De Lille, said they had made contact with the complainants.

The mayor had met the the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa, which agreed to facilitate the investigation into the matter.

“We appreciate that these incidents are being brought to our attention as the mayor is hosting extensive discussions with a range of sector bodies and organisations providing the forum for us to raise these issues with the relevant authority.”

[email protected]

Cape Argus

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