Some of you may have met Craig. He's the restaurant manager at the Hussar Grill in Stellenbosch.
It's a lovely restaurant in the town centre with excellent steaks and mouth-watering prawns, along with an excellent wine list.
It was busy on Monday. Far busier than it should have been. Young university student waitresses rushed backwards and forwards. Far busier than they needed to be.
It was obvious to even the casual observer that the staff was stretched too thinly.
Craig was cajoling and chastising his staff. It was clear that it was his systems that were not working. It took out 45 minutes to place even our food order.
After an hour or so of observation I let Craig know. First, he accused me of "raising my voice" - which I wasn't. Then he accused me of disrespecting him in his workplace. He denied we had waited 45 minutes to place an order.
When he realised I was sober and logical he promised he would "fix everything up".
Craig was never seen again. A liability to his employers; and a rare embarrassment in a country with general excellent service standards.
An excellent dinner with a dickhead in charge. Pity really, and I felt sorry for waiter Semone.
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