African National Congress heavyweights, including a newly elected mayor from the George district, Lulama Mvimbi, had their drinks snatched from their hands and were told to leave a well-known Plettenberg Bay pub this week because the pub owner did not ”like the attitude” of one of their friends.
Owner of the Get Together Sports Bar, Craig Hunter, stopped prominent Plett businessman Amos Kova when he tried to enter the bar on Tuesday night. When Kova asked him if this was because he was a black man, Hunter said he didn’t ”like his attitude” and pushed him out the door.
Kova then phoned his friend, Memory Booysen, who is an assistant to Plett mayor Euan Wildeman, to tell him about the incident, and then left to report it to the police.
While Kova was still at the police station, Booysen arrived at the bar with local ANC chairperson Peter Lobese; mayor of George’s Eden district, Lulama Mvimbi, and South African Youth Council coordinator Putco Mapitiza.
They say Hunter slammed the drinks down on the counter in front of them.
”We were clearly not welcome,” Booysen said. When Kova got back, they allege Hunter confronted him and told him to leave.
”Hunter said if Amos was our friend, we all had to go. Then he started pushing Amos towards the door.
”We asked him what his problem was, but he just kept muttering about attitude,” said Lulama.
”When we tried to reason with him, he demanded we leave the bar immediately. We told him we were going to finish our drinks first. He snatched the drink right out of my hand, slammed money down in front of us and told us to go.”
Staff from nearby restaurants said similar incidents had happened in the past. One said that when Hunter was told the men he was evicting were respectable community leaders, he said he ”couldn’t care who they were” and had the ”right to refuse admission to anybody he wanted”.
Craig Hunter was not available for comment. Kova is laying charges of assault.