[imagesource: Instagram / Discover Cape Town]

Societi Bistro has been a fixture on the Cape Town dining scene for what feels like forever.

In recent months, the Orange Street restaurant has been praised for raising money for the I Am For Her Foundation and just months ago owner Peter Weetman was credited with helping a former staff member launch her own franchise.

However, a story published yesterday on IOL is far less flattering for Weetman, with at least six men saying “they had been sexually harassed, groomed, manipulated or assaulted by upmarket male patrons, as well as the man at the helm”.

Some waiters described the restaurant as a brothel in disguise. Police were also called to the restaurant when one incident got out of hand.

“It started during my interview already,” former waiter Jonathan Saunders, 29, said.

“Peter offered me R1 500 to sleep with him that very same evening,” Saunders, who is not afraid of being identified, said.

When asked for comment, Weetman told IOL he was aware of the allegations made against him and was “finding the correct policies to deal with issues like this”.

A 20-year-old waiter, who asked not to be named, said Weetman used him to make other people jealous:

“He would, like, ask me to hang on him or to give him a kiss on the cheek in an attempt to make his other customers jealous. He also made it very clear that I should avail myself 24/7 and always be ready to fulfil his sexual needs.”

He lasted just 49 days before being fired, which he alleges had to do with rejecting Weetman’s advances one night while staff were cashing out.

After Weetman allegedly told the waiter that he was going to perform oral sex on him, which the waiter refused, he says he was made to “sign some papers” and was let go.

It’s not just male employees who are speaking out, either:

A former female employee told Weekend Argus the work culture was “toxic” and that Weetman was “misogynistic”.

“He would ask us to do his f******g laundry,” she said.

“If we refused to do his laundry, he would slap us with warnings.”

Weetman has denied many of the allegations against him, but admitted that he “should have protected my waiters more, and maybe asked people to leave”.

“I deny groping the waiters myself, and I don’t encourage patrons to come to my restaurant and randomly start groping my employees. That’s just not who I am,” he said.

Wendy Alberts, president of the Restaurant Association of South Africa, said the matter would be taken up with Weetman.

At this stage, no case has been registered with SAPS.

You can read the full story here.

[source:iol]