The Texamo Spur at the Glen Shopping Mall in Johannesburg was still relatively busy after a damning video of a brawl between patrons went viral.
Staff at the restaurant seemingly did little to stop the altercation‚ which happened on Sunday in full view of children.
Some patrons were undeterred by the incident.
“I’ve seen it . But I enjoy the service at this Spur and it’s close‚” said one man.
Others seemed oblivious to the incident.
“I don’t know anything about that‚” one man said‚ walking out of the mall with a woman and child.
The altercation‚ caught on video‚ involved two parents who accused each other’s children of bullying at the restaurant.
In the footage‚ a man is seen threatening to give the woman a “klap” in front of a group of children who had gathered for a birthday party.
At one point‚ the man violently shook her table and was stopped by his female companion and another patron from coming to blows with the woman.
TimesLIVE spoke to franchise owner‚ Brett Milligan‚ on Wednesday morning.
He said business was doing fine‚ despite social media calls for a boycott of the establishment. Milligan would not comment any further.
The latest incident is not the first to happen under his watch.
An article in the Alberton Record newspaper two years ago revealed that a patron died at a Spur in Alberton after being assaulted by a group of other patrons.
Milligan was the owner of that establishment.
Waiters at the eatery had tried to stop the assault but the victim died a short while later.
At the time‚ Milligan said he was proud of his staff who had tried to intervene.
But South Africans were unimpressed with the staff’s efforts to quell the latest incident.
A statement from Spur‚ however‚ revealed that the staff said they tried to intervene but “were pushed away numerous times by the angry male customer.”
They claimed to have also called the mall security for assistance.
Speaking to Radio 702‚ Spur CEO Pierre van Tonder expressed outrage at the incident.
He said staff had been trained on how to handle situations like robberies‚ but not how to handle confrontations between customers. Such training would be looked into‚ he said.
TimesLIVE attempted to get comment on Tuesday from the staff who were present during the altercation but was told that all the staff who had been on duty when the incident occurred were not in on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile‚ Spur has issued a nationwide ban on the man involved in Sunday’s row.
“We obviously have a picture and video of what went down… This gentleman’s picture will be up in Spurs and he will be asked to leave should he arrive at any one of our establishments‚” Van Tonder said.