Gay customers allege homophobia at Sunnypark Spur
“What hurt the most is that Spur is known as one of the most gay-friendly restaurants”.
Five gay men have accused the Sunnypark Spur of discrimination and abuse after they were frogmarched out of the eatery, and illegally detained for kissing.
Tshegofatso Mpahlele (26), a social media manager from Soshanguve, and Kea Maubane (23) said they wanted the eatery and the Spur staff who mistreated them to be held accountable.
Mpahlele said he and his four friends were at the Spur on Sunday morning for breakfast.
“Two of my friends were kissing and talking … making out but not groping or anything like that. After paying the bill, I went to the loo,” said Mphahlele.
When Mpahlele returned, he said two of his friends were talking to a waitress.
“The lady called us disgusting and said the Spur was a family restaurant,” said Maubane.
Mphahlele said the waitress refused to call the manager, Nelson Gambule, when it asked for him to deal with the issue.
“She said she had the same rank as the manager, and could do nothing about our complaint,” said Mphahele.
The two said when another friend waded in, he was taken to the holding cell at the mall.
“We were escorted out of the mall by security guards for ‘causing trouble’,” said Mphahlele.
“My friend and I were crying,” said Mphahlele “We felt so violated. What hurt the most is that Spur is known as one of the most gay-friendly restaurants.”
He said two other customers, girls, were in the restaurant’s smoking area with them.
He said the girls had not complained.
“I think the waitress made up the complaint because she was clearly homophobic. I even asked the waitress who was serving us if we had done anything wrong, something indecent.” said Mphahlele.
Maubane said they wanted to raise awareness about homophobia at the restaurant and wanted an apology from the Spur management.
“We did nothing wrong, had it been a straight couple kissing, would they have treated them in the same way they did us?” Mphahlele asked and added it was curious that the mistreatment had occurred after he had paid the bill.
“I want Spur to apologise for treating us like second-class citizens in a country that protects our rights,” said Maubane.
Mphahlele said he wanted the Spur staff members involved to be held accountable for their actions.
“If it means they have to undergo sensitivity training, so be it,” he said.
Spur Sunnypark manager Nelson Gambule said kissing in the Spur was prohibited as it was a family restaurant.
“Customers are not allowed to kiss. It has nothing to do with being gay,” said Gambule.
He added that the incident occurred 15 to 20 minutes before he arrived at work, and was notified by his staff.
He emphasised that his staff had the right to call security to escort ‘misbehaving’ customers out.
“Do they think its appropriate to insult managers? If they were only kissing, they should have stopped,” he said.
But he conceded the Spur had no warning sign on the wall against kissing.
“There is no sign but it is a family restaurant and people need to follow the rules. We serve a lot of gay customers and this is the first time we have had an incident like this in our six years of operation,” said Gambule.
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