Johannesburg - The family of Adam Catzavelos, who made a notorious racist video while on holiday, have denied claims of rebranding their former restaurant in Joburg and keeping Catzavelos in the family business.
Catzavelos’s father George told The Star the family has nothing to do with the establishment, the Urban Eatery, in Braamfontein which opened after The Smokehouse and Grill closed in August last year.
“We have nothing to do with Smokehouse, we got out of it in August/September,” he said. “The new restaurant is the Urban Eatery and we have absolutely nothing to do with it.”
Catzavelos made headlines when a video of him holidaying in Greece was shared on social media showing him saying:”Let me give you a weather forecast here. Blue skies, beautiful day, amazing sea and not one k***** in sight”
The social media clip caused a lot of controversy which saw his family cutting him out of the family business.
The EFF and other individuals opened crimen injuria cases against him.
This week a waiter at Urban Eatery, who previously worked at The Smokehouse and Grill, said the restaurant’s ownership had changed and the Urban Eatery was under new management.
A company search conducted by The Star showed that Catzavelos was still a director of a company that the family owned called St George’s Fine Foods.
It also showed he had resigned from The Urban Eatery and three other family businesses, BBQ King Distribution, Chimichurri and Phoenix Fine Foods.
Catzavelos's brother, Nicholas, told The Star the company had changed from a closed corporation (CC) into a private company. The company is now called Phoenix Fine Foods.
Nicholas Catzavelos said: “We were a close corporation listed as St George’s Fine Foods which we converted into a private company.
"Because the CC was never closed down, it still reflects Adam as a director of St George’s Fine Foods.
“I did the same search as you because I was concerned about it.”
Their father, George, said that the family had not been doing well since his son’s racially fuelled video went viral.
“We’re not very happy with each other but it’s done, it’s finished and the mistake was made and that’s it,” he added.
The SA Human Right Commission (SAHRC) announced last year that they would conduct a formal investigation into Catzavelos’s “insulting k-word slur.”
Gauteng provincial manager Buang Jones said Catzavelos was overseas when the commission wanted to serve him with legal papers.
Jones said the SAHRC intended to serve him papers on the day that he appeared in court.
“We’ll ensure on the day he appears in court, we want to use that as an opportunity to serve him the papers because we want to institute proceedings in the Equality Court,” Jones added.