Cape Town - A day commemorating the great Women's March of 1956 turned traumatic for two black women.
The Blowfish Restaurant in Blouberg has been accused of racially profiling patrons after several patrons came forward saying they were denied a booking due to their race.
Vuyiseka Feni made a telephonic booking and she was told the restaurant is fully booked until she asked her friend Stacy Anderson to make a booking on her behalf.
“All of a sudden they had a table available and confirmed the booking,” said Feni.
They went to the restaurant but left without being served.
“We asked about their specials and we were told to look on the menu, we spent 30 minutes without a waiter coming to take our order and we left. I had a similar experience in that place last year but I did not think much of it, but now it shows they have a problem with black people there.”
Another patron, Vuyokazi from Milnerton, alleged that the restaurant declined her booking request because she was black.
She said she made a booking, for Women’s Day, using her name but was told the restaurant was fully booked.
“I live close to the restaurant and they are never full, so I made another booking using my other email address with a European name and I got a table,” she said.
She used her partner’s contact details on the second email and named herself Sarah. She also booked for three people more than her first booking, which was just two.
“I posted about the issue on social media and more people came out saying they experienced the same treatment. The restaurant called and blamed their booking system, saying it was automated but one could see from the responses that it was signed off by someone.”
After seeing Vuyokazi’s post on social media, Bridget Bam made a booking using her African name (Thembi) to test the waters. She was told the restaurant was full but when she used Brian as her name, she got a table outside the restaurant.
“I only booked because I wanted to see if there was truth to the story because it could be just an innocent error but I guess it was with intent not to book African people,” said Bam.
General manager of Blowfish, Marc Scheidel, said Monday was their busiest day since March last year when the first lockdown started and denied discriminating against anyone.
He said they dealt with calls, emails, WhatsApp messages and social media bookings the entire day.
“Since there was such high demand, the situation was extremely fluid and bookings were received and cancelled the entire day. The instant a booking was cancelled, it was filled again.
“When Vuyokazi’s first email was received, we were in fact fully booked at that time. Once the second enquiry (from Sarah) came in, a table had opened up and we responded accordingly,” he said.
He said even when Thembi made a booking, they were fully booked.
“We accommodated people of all races on Monday as evidenced by our reservations book and we reluctantly had to decline people of all races.”
Vuyokazi did not accept the explanation and said it was just too coincidental.
“They do not want to own up, why if a spot is open they did not consider the person who made a booking and was told it is full? Also, when Thembi booked, she was not offered outside seating. She was just told it is full but to Brian, outside was available.
“I thought it was going to be a nice Women’s Day for me but they ruined it and it’s sad that such things are happening in 2021.”
The restaurant did not comment on Feni’s experience.
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