[imagesource: News24]

When news broke claiming that Tin Roof was at the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak in the Southern Suburbs, having hosted a ‘super-spreader’ party on October 3, the jokes wrote themselves.

Catching COVID-19 is the least of your worries at Tin Roof.

Unfortunately, unlike many of the other things you can catch at Tin Roof, COVID-19 isn’t curable with a shot of penicillin.

At least the headlines are about a dodgy bar in Cape Town and not the beloved ice-cream.

You get the drift.

As of yesterday, News24 reports that the number of COVID-cases linked to the October 3 party has risen to 89, with 38 of those cases being matric pupils at schools in the area.

Tin Roof’s owner, James Truter, has been outspoken right from the start, claiming that reports blaming his establishment for spreading the virus are “utter nonsense”.

He’s now appeared on CapeTalk, speaking to Lester Kiewit about being made a “scapegoat”. Some quotes from that interview:

At the moment, I know a lot of the matrics haven’t had a social year, because of quarantine, they have not seen all their friends – and there is a need for them to congregate and socialise…

A lot of the kids were at the parties on the same night. I think we are now being used as a scapegoat for all the events that have been going on over that same period…

They are 18. They are adults. It is their decision to come to a venue, who they sit with, who they touch. It is their decision on how to act.

I think we can all agree that decisions left in the hands of 18-year-olds tend to end badly.

The interview is worth listening to in full, but he really goes to town on how the story unfolded from the six-minute mark:

[sources:news24&capetalk]