Ex-employees of bar tell of racism and ill-treatment of black staff

Male and female workers made to share a bed

- By Bongani Mdakane

Former employees of the notorious Bar With No Name pub and restaurant in Sasolburg, Free State, have spoken out about human rights violations that they claim they were subjected to by the owner and manager of the establishment.

Alleged violations include, among others, making male and female staff sleep in the same room after knocking off in the wee hours of the morning while their white colleagues were transported to their homes.

The ex-employees, who say they were renumerated in tips and commission, spoke to Sunday World this week outside Sasolburg Magistrate’s Court, where their former boss and former owner of the popular pub Gert Janse van Rensburg made his second appearance in the Equality Court on Tuesday.

Janse van Rensburg, who was hauled before the court by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), is facing a charge of hate crime. The charge resulted from a viral video in which white bar patrons were seen urinating on the “faces” of President Cyril Ramaphosa, former president Jacob Zuma, EFF president Julius Malema and former African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The four leaders’ pictures had been placed in urinals in the toilets of the bar on the outskirts of Sasolburg.