Despite a personal apology from the manager and an invitation to return to one of South Africa's leading luxury hotels, Tumi Mpofu isn't interested in a free meal.
Mpofu and her family claim staff at The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa in Camps Bay, Cape Town, were racist towards them.
"I'm not concerned about going back. I'm just interested that people shouldn't be treated like this," she said yesterday.
On December 27, Mpofu's father phoned to book a table at the hotel's Azure Restaurant. When he was told they couldn't accommodate a table of six, the family called a white friend, Martina Dahlmanns, for help.
Dahlmanns immediately got a table. But when the family arrived, they were told the booking didn't exist. Again, the family called Dahlmanns, who spoke to the restaurant and a table was found. She later posted a blog about the incident.
The hotel said yesterday that during peak season "numerous challenges occur due to overbookings, lack of confirmations of bookings, last-minute cancellations, unscheduled arrivals or erroneous bookings".
It "strongly refused to accept being branded as a racist hotel".
Mpofu said she was made to feel uncomfortable throughout her party' s visit.
"From the minute we arrived we were stared at as if we were lost. We were treated like some kind of aliens."
Her father, Mlamli Papu, said the waiter who dealt with them was very rude.
Read Dahlmanns' blog post
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