Mystery man causes trouble at businesses

An unknown man who claims to be the brother of a Namibian politician is causing havoc at businesses in the Windhoek city centre and accusing them of not wanting to help him. On Sunday afternoon, an altercation broke out between the man, who nobody has been able to identify, and employees at the Spur Grand Canyon steakhouse in Independence Avenue. The man wanted to book a table at Spur for the entire week, but was informed that the restaurant does not do bookings in that way. “Becoming agitated, he made a big scene and threatened that he will come back to beat up the owner of Spur,” the head of security at the restaurant, Hugo Nepgen, told Namibian Sun. According to him the man was thrown out of the restaurant. Not long after this incident, the media were informed via email that “a politician’s little brother” was beaten up “with fists, knives and knopkieries by staff, bouncers and security guards at Spur”. The email stated that the public should be made aware of the “cruel and barbaric behaviour of multinational restaurant franchises such as Spur”, and invited the media to a Monday press conference. However, when Namibian Sun showed up at Spur yesterday the alleged victim was nowhere to be found and there was no press conference. The franchisee of Spur Grand Canyon, Paula Cadete, said the entire scene on Sunday was captured on camera. According to her the man threatened the management with the newspapers when the employees told him that he could not make a booking for the entire week. He also refused to give his name and phone number for the booking, saying that the restaurant would not keep his number confidential. Some of the waiters who were working on Sunday said the man was swearing at them and wagging his finger. They also claim that the man hit the manager on duty in the face and was carrying a knife. When asked about this, Nepgen said no physical confrontation can be seen on the CCTV footage. He also pointed out that Spur does not have any “bouncers.” Since early yesterday morning the man has been back to the Spur at least five times, demanding to book a table. “We do not know if he is mentally stable,” said Cadete. “At first we thought that maybe he was just drunk on Sunday, but he is still carrying on. This is a family restaurant and we cannot allow behaviour like this here.” The Spur security team together with the Namibian Police yesterday followed the man after he left the restaurant to see whether they could establish who is or where he works. “We followed him for a while and left him. He first went to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration and from there to Pick n Pay and then to Cafe Schneider. He is causing trouble everywhere he goes and accuses the people of not helping him.” Namibian Sun contacted, Erastus Dumeni, who sent out the original email about the incident. Dumeni said he wanted to arrange another press conference but when asked to identify the man who claimed to have been beaten up at Spur, he refused. WINDHOEK ELLANIE SMIT