Bruce Cohen
Winnie Mandela may have angered Nelson and upstaged Thabo, but she’s been thrilling the northern suburbs of Johnnesburg with an urban legend of epicurian
The rumour started last November and goes something like this: Winnie and party of 10 or so arrived at the famed Ile de France restaurant in Bryanston, owned by award-winning chef Marc Guebert. After a lavish meal of caviar and French champagne, the bill was presented.
“We don’t pay,” was the legendary response.
Then, according to those who don’t know, the restaurateur locked the front door, with the Winnie party inside, and called the cops.
And here the story gets really rich: finally a very senior policeman arrived and paid for the meal, allowing Winnie and her party to go their merry way.
In the proper tradition of a Winnie legend, this story has a bitter twist: the next morning the restaurant manager was met at the door of Ile de France by a group of young thugs who beat the hell out of him.
Marc and Irene Guebert say they have been flooded with enquiries by patrons and the media. “The rumour started in November and then died down after Christmas,” said Mrs Guebert. “But now that Mrs Mandela is in the limelight again, it’s taken off and every newspaper and radio station in town has been phoning us. We even had the AWB checking it out.”
Fact of the matter, says Mrs Guebert, is that Winnie Mandela has never dined at the Ile de France.
The legend reach frenzied proportions last week when it featured on Radio 702. A caller on the John and Gary show claimed that a friend had actually been at the Ile de France when the incident took place.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s crazy,” says Irene Guebert.
“By the way, we would welcome Mrs Mandela to dinner at any time.”