ANA reports that the Catzavelos-owned Smokehouse and Grill revealed on Sunday that the actions of the EFF members who invaded the restaurant in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on 6 September compounded bad trading conditions and resulted in the business being forced to close its doors.  

The restaurant owner and director said in a statement that the jobs of the 29 staff members had thus been lost following the reaction to the racism scandal involving Adam Catzavelos, who had previously held a minority stake in the restaurant, even though he had no operational involvement.  The EFF members apparently threatened staff members and allegedly surrounded one manager holding steak knives they had picked up from the restaurant tables.  However, Adam Catzavelos had been fired from the family business, with immediate effect, on 21 August, "the day his comments came to our and the public’s attention", and more than two weeks before the EFF decided to mobilise against the restaurant.  The company pointed out that on 22 August, it had publicly disassociated itself from Adam’s widely reported racist utterances via a media statement.  "It beggars belief that businesses can be thus threatened, seemingly without a thought to the people who will be most affected and the families they support … The Smokehouse and Grill rejects racism and discrimination in all its forms,” the statement indicated.

• Read this report in full at IOL News
• Read too, Smokehouse and Grill restaurant forced to close in wake of Catzavelos racism scandal, at Timeslive

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