A number of Muslims resorted to Facebook this week to express their disgust after they were led to believe that a Spur Steak Ranch kiosk was halal and later discovered it was not certified. The popular franchise sold food to customers at the Junior Argus Cycle Tour last Saturday, an event attended by hundreds of Muslim families whose children participated in the bicycle race.
A listener, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was told by staff that the food being sold was halal and purchased food for her entire family.
“The queue was filled with Muslim customers. We were all told that the food was halal and had no reason to doubt as we always see Spur at our local festivals,” she told VOC News.
Spur patrons were incensed on social media following the incident. Some social media users said they were “disgusted” at the lack of respect for Muslim customers, while others said they had lost confidence in the franchise.
In response, Spur CEO Pierre Van Donders extended a “heartfelt” apology to the Muslim community of Cape Town following an investigation into the incident. Van Donders explained that the fault lies with the outsourced supplier who made last minute changes and misrepresented the product to customers.
“The outsourced operator who did the event did not use the criteria as set out by our supply chain. Therefore, the product was misrepresented and customers thought it came from a Halal supplier. We will be issuing legal notice to this particular operator,” Van Donders added.
Van Donders reiterated the franchise’s stance on their “strict” halal criteria.
“In the event of catering for a halal based clientèle, we make use of our franchises in Vangate Mall, or Rodeo Spur in Claremont. This way we can ensure that the food served is strictly halal. However, the event over the weekend was not a halal event,” Van Donders continued.
In conclusion, Van Donders said it was the right of every customer to request halal certification at Spur kiosks.
The MJC Halal Trust could not be reached for comment. VOC (Ra’eesah Isaacs)
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10 comments
The sad part of it all was when asked for a halaal certificate we were shown a certificate only when the story came out that it was not infact halaal did we request the certificate again and see that it was an outdated certificate.
"The MJC Halal Trust could not be reached for comment." – whats new
I would like to know if the same vendor operated at the Cape Town Big Walk on the 28th of February 2016?
Spur Steak Ranches misled hundreds of muslims attending the Junior Argus Cycle Tour in believing their foods sold at its mobile kiosk at the event was halaal. On the day, they also presented a MJC halaal certificate to its patrons at this specific kiosk. The irony is that a few weeks ago, the very Spur Steak Ranches was also a primary sponsor to the annual Sunfoil/Spur Steak Ranches fun walk. Historically, the vast majority of the approximate 20+ thousand participants of this fun walk are muslims.
You as Spur Steak Ranches becomes a sponsor in the hope of gaining further market share by exposing and marketing your brand at a community that has quiet a significant spend and GDP contribution in this province.
Pierre Van Donders! Do NOT even try and be patronising with a lame ass apology. Do you truly understand the sensitivities attached to your "oversight"? Do you understand the demographics associated with the Muslim community you are targeting your product at? Do NOT pass the buck, at some "outsource supplier"! As last man standing, man up and take the wrap and consequences as Mr CEO!
Name the "outsourced operator"
Self-sufficiency is key. We need to learn how to cook our own food and stop relying on other people to do it for us. Why don’t we as Muslims setup our own brand that caters exclusively for halaal? That way we can stop blaming every food retailer for any mistakes they make.
The Muslim community is over reacting. Really now!
If I feel that the food served at a food retailer is not halaal, I don’t bother to kick up a fuss. I go home and make my own chow.
Clearly you have not followed the story correctly. When inquired about the food we were told that it was halaal. Infact over the years it has always been halaal but someone tried to climb in from a business side and make a quick buck and served Muslims unhalaal food and thought it was ok to lie about it. People don’t go to thos event to eat especially, they go for their kids to have a good time and attend the race. Most parents and I am 1 of them, have more than 1 child thus we have 2 bikes and a pram we go with with nappy bags etc thus no hands to carry more things. Its an event that is very well supported and if u look at the crowd majority is 1 again muslims. We have a race in the morning at 9 and again at 12h15 so in between that would be silly to leave so we stay for the entertainment etc. It was once we left after the last race that the truth was made known by a halaal franchise owner who spotted this error in making us believe they are halaal. The outsourced vendor has put out an apology but I dont believe her apology or accept it as her attitude on the day and the way her management staff reacted showed us they knew what they were doing and didnt think it was such a big issue, only reason for her apology is because she got caught and now the media has found out.
Self sufficiency please! We dont all have the time to make food at our homes, that is the convenience of take outs and the reason why we have the MJC etc to ensure that the certificates suppliers possess are actually halaal.
Overreacting being shown a certiifcate and then discovering later that the food is not halaal? So what you are saying is that we must not trust our Ulama, shame, no wonder muslims are not united because of people like you.
I think you are like Mr CEO
This issue disgusting! Can't believe they actually produced an outdated certificate. .. zero respect!
I believe that Donald Trump of the Great USA is behind this, as the Spur franchise is American.
Also President Donald Trump of America is planning to built the biggest pig farm in Cape Town next to an Halaal poultry farm to have the pigs blood exported to American armed forces so that their bullets can be dipped into to it to kill millions of Muslims throughout the world.