Law professor appointed to probe ‘Spur bully’ incident

The Spur Corporation has appointed a legal professor to head an investigation into a heated altercation between two customers at one of its restaurants.

“We have asked Prof Elmien du Plessis of the Faculty of Law at North-West University (NWU) to convene a panel and draft guidelines for an in-depth investigation into all relevant aspects of the incident.

“The panel will be completely independent and have full access to all facts and footage surrounding the event. The team will make recommendations to Spur on actions that should be taken to rectify the shortcomings in our responses and improve our reaction to similar incidents in the future‚” it said in a statement.

• Man in Spur row nowhere to be foundAs the hunt intensifies for the man seen shouting at, and threatening to assault, a woman at a Spur in Johannesburg's The Glen shopping centre, his home town of Rustenburg, in North West, has closed ranks. 

The incident‚ in which an aggressive white man berated a black woman in front of children at the family eatery‚ took place at Texamo Spur at The Glen Shopping Centre in Johannesburg on March 19 and was video recorded by patrons.

Spur had also released CCTV footage of the man grabbing Lebohang Mabuya's seven-year-old boy aggressively.

Spur said the decision to appoint Du Plessis to lead the investigation came after an “intensive period of self-reflection”.

Du Plessis holds an LLD from Stellenbosch University and is a member of the Human Rights Committee at NWU.

Details about the panellists that will join her in conducting the investigation will be known in due course‚ Spur said.

• WATCH: CCTV footage shows moment man 'aggressively' grabbed woman's child during Spur altercation CCTV footage has been released by Spur showing the altercation where a mother was threatened with a “klap” by a fellow diner during a heated argument over their children at the weekend. 

“Such an investigation will take time to conclude its work and although we have impressed the need for urgency upon Prof Du Plessis‚ it is important that she and the convened panel have the time to do a proper investigation."

Spur has taken a number of steps to improve its capacity to deal with incidents of this nature in future‚ it said.

“We have already embarked on a national programme to increase the child-minder to child ratio in out Play Canyons during busy periods. We have also launched a formal re-education drive that will refresh and enhance the procedures and skills of our minders.”

The company has also offered conflict resolution skills training to key personnel.