An elderly businessman who called internationally renowned Cape Town artist Willie Bester a "k....r" in one of Cape Town's top restaurants was beaten up and had to be taken away in an ambulance.
By all accounts, including those of Bester and Johann Smit, the restaurant manager, businessman Richard Sterne started the hostilities but came off worse.
Smit identified the man as Richard Sterne, father of the South African golfer of the same name.
The problems began when Sterne and his companion moved tables, and he reportedly left his cellphone and keys at the first table.
Bester told Weekend Argus he had been sitting in the bar with some friends when Sterne came in looking for his cellphone.
"He said it cost R20 000 and he was frantically looking for it."
Bester said the man returned to his seat but then jumped up and screamed at the woman he was with that the reason it was missing was because she had been talking to "f.....g coloureds".
"Everyone was looking at him. I told him it was not fair to make those remarks which were racist," said Bester.
Bester said an angry Sterne retorted he couldn't be racist because he employed 100 coloured people.
Bester asked restaurant staff to have Sterne removed from the restaurant, and when this did not happen he decided to leave.
"But the man went outside to the patio, grabbed a table and came running at me. The security stopped him but he grabbed a stone from the garden and tried to throw it at me."
Bester said the manager had repeatedly called security but they took some time to arrive.
"Then this man went into the bar and came out with a glass of red wine which he threw in my face. I went for him but he broke the glass and tried to stab me."
Bester said when Sterne came out of the bar he grabbed him and the next moment "fists were flying".
He said he couldn't say how many people had been involved.
"When I looked down I saw he had two blue eyes and blood streaming from a cut. He told me to stop and that he gave up. Then he said he would give me R1 000. I said 'no, I don't want your money'. At some point during the whole thing he called me a 'k****r'."
Bester, who was left with bruises and scratches, said he had not laid a charge with the police. "He did apologise and he had blood all over him. But if he lays charges I will lay counter charges."
Bester said it was not normally in his nature to get involved. "Maybe I should have kept quiet when he made that first comment, but I felt it was an insult. Even two white guys sitting in the bar said it wasn't fair to use that kind of language."
A restaurant patron, who asked not to be named, said she had been horrified by the incident. Sterne's language had been inexcusable but it had been terrible to watch him being so badly beaten that he had to be taken away in an ambulance.
"I thought he might be dead," she said.
Weekend Argus was unable to contact Sterne or his family for comment.