Popular Skeem Saam actor Cornet Thabiso Mamabolo was embroiled in a blazing racist row that almost degenerated into an ugly affair with the owner of a Joburg restaurant last week Thursday.
Mamabolo blitzed out of the Picallo Rossa Restaurant in Greenside without drinking the coffee he had ordered when the tiff with the eatery's boss robbed him of his appetite.
Relating the matter to Sunday World, Mamabolo said he walked into the restaurant with his colleague Surprise Seema in the morning and ordered two cups of coffee.
"We asked the waiter who was serving us what his name was. He said Emanuella," said the actor.
"I said 'that's a unique name'. He said to me they were all given Italian names by the boss and they don't like it.
"So, we went to the owner and asked him about it. He said it was fun and had been doing it for eight years. That's where all hell broke loose."
Mamabolo added that he felt giving black waiters Italian names was racist - in his view.
Owner Boris Nichete confirmed the incident, but said the names added to the feel of the place.
"We call Clarence Aldo, Brighton is Dlucio, Doris was named Cyanda," said Nichete.
"There was no offence intended. But in hindsight, maybe I should have engaged my waiters and asked them if they were offended by these nicknames. When I gave them jobs, I told them they would be given Italian names and they accepted them.
"Maybe as a brand we need to look at this again.
"I apologise to that man. I didn't know who he was because I don't have a TV. He is the first person to be offended by this."
But Mamabolo was still piqued.
"This tells me a black life doesn't matter, and that a black identity is irrelevant," said Mamabolo.
"It's sad that some white people still treat us the same way we were treated under apartheid."
According to Seema: "The operational relationship of this restaurant is not that of employer and employee. It is that of master and slaves.
"It's carrying on the legacy of apartheid."
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