I watched Ratatouille, the adorable film about a rat who becomes a Michelin star chef, the other day.

So in my mind, this is a story about a rat living its best life as it tries to launch its career as a baker.

Here’s what actually happened:

Shoprite has apologised to customers after outrage on social media following a post by Pretty Ndhlovu, complete with a picture of a rat hanging out in the display at the bakery in Yeoville, Johannesburg.

Times LIVE reports that “in one of the images a rat can be clearly seen‚ standing on a pile of gingerbread men advertised at R1‚99 each. A tray of creamy doughnuts was perched above the rat”.

The post first surfaced back in June, when Pretty posted the images with the following status:

“So today I decided to grab a pie from Shoprite Yeoville… got to the ovens and waited for help which took 10 good minutes of pure neglect….

“THEN BOOM. Mr Rat was right in front of me feasting on those yummies.”

Judging by the look of those gingerbread men, the rat might have been doing Shoprite a favour.

The post resurfaced on Twitter today, where it is receiving a similar response from people complaining about the state of Shoprite stores:

Shoprite reacted swiftly that tweet‚ describing it as an unfortunate incident. In a brief statement to customers‚ they apologised.

The responses to Pretty’s post back in June, though, suggest that people feel like Shoprite stores in areas where the majority of residents are black or coloured are neglected and ill-maintained:

Although some people are clearly confused about the timeline, which doesn’t say much for the ‘improvements’ that are supposed to have taken place:

The rat is kind of cute if you let go of the whole vermin of the Jozi streets thing.

Look, if that rat wants to pursue its pastry chef dreams, who are we to stand in its way?

[source:timeslive]