Durban – A post by comedian Felix Hlophe’s wife, Tracy Smith Hlophe, and a statement by Bona Terra Cafe giving its account of what led to the allegations of attempted kidnapping at the restaurant at the weekend suggest that the incident was “blown way out of proportion”.
Hlophe was responding to a post made by a woman on the Hillcrest/Waterfall/Kloof Community News & Trade Zone Facebook group.
Hlophe said the woman was spewing false malicious accusations of attempted kidnapping.
She said that she, her husband, their two children, and two of her husband’s friends and their wives were at Bona Terra Cafe on Saturday.
Hlophe said the person alleged to be the kidnapper was a nanny who was watching over their children while they were playing. She apologised for touching the complainant’s son right after it happened. Hlophe said the nanny was not trying to kidnap anyone’s child; she thought she was being friendly.
“She immediately came back to our table and told us what happened, we informed her not to give attention or play with anyone’s kids, as innocent as it was, and the mother followed her to our table and started screaming at her. She continued to apologise three times, as did we, but she went on and on until our nanny started crying because she felt attacked. That’s when my husband got up and asked the staff to remove her (the complainant) from our table,” Hlophe explained.
“Unfortunately, this is being blown way out of proportion, tarnishing the image of such a wholesome establishment. Bona Terra is such a beautiful place, we love taking the kids there and everyone should continue doing the same. Don’t let false accusations ruin such a fun establishment for kids and families.”
On Tuesday, IOL reported that in a post on Facebook, a resident claimed that she was with her family at Bona Terra when a woman approached her 2-year-old son and put her hands over the toddler’s eyes before picking him up and walking off. The resident said that she jumped up and grabbed her son.
“She resisted at first but then let go of him. I yelled at her and all she could say was sorry,” the woman said.
She added that she looked for the manager to call the police but she noticed the woman seated at a table with other patrons.
“I stopped and asked her what her motive was and she said sorry and started crying. One of the patrons at her table started screaming at me and called for the waiters to remove me from the cafe,” the post read.
The woman claimed that staff refused to contact the police and were “pretending as if the incident did not occur”.
In its statement, the Bona Terra management team said the allegations of an attempted kidnapping were false and the incident had been distorted beyond recognition.
“The person who placed their hand over the child's eyes was a childminder who works for a celebrity and was part of a group that had been playing with the children for some time before this incident occurred. Our staff were aware of this and knew that the childminder was with the celebrity group,” management said.
“Unfortunately, the customer who made these false allegations immediately started screaming and making a scene without listening to the facts. It was only after someone from her table noticed that the supposed kidnapper was sitting with other customers that the misunderstanding was cleared up. The other customers even apologised to the complainant three times for the misunderstanding.”
The restaurant’s management urged the complainant to issue an apology to all parties to resolve this matter amicably by the close of business on Wednesday.
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Daily News