Spur gets under skins of conservative SA whites – New York Times

We sometimes miss undercurrents when all seems glassy-calm on the surface. One such has been picked up the New York Times and most South African swimmers in the daily social media waters probably missed it completely. The NYT seems to make a belated meal of a well-publicised 2017 racial incident at a Johannesburg Spur outlet where the household-name, kid-friendly restaurant chain banned an aggressive-behaving, white-parent patron and apologised to their black-parent patron after a nasty confrontation. Yet the valence of the NYT's story is in highlighting the deeply emotional subsequent reaction of organisations representing increasingly popular conservative white minority groups. They successfully organised a nation-wide boycott of Spur Steak Ranch outlets by similar-minded whites, costing the company nearly 10% losses in sales and putting some unfortunately-situated franchises out of business. As you read, you realise that the restaurant chain's clientele has changed dramatically, today being supported by more blacks than whites, regardless of location. This has touched a nerve among the increasingly less-privileged white income groups as they collide with black people on their way up the legally-bolstered income ladder aimed at addressing apartheid's legacies. The political dynamics thus unleashed deserve careful monitoring. – Chris Bateman

By Thulasizwe Sithole

There are few more delicately-placed restaurants in the still residentially and thus racially-divided new South Africa than the Strand Spur Steak Ranch.

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