Uproar over photo of Indian couple having dinner with ‘less than a dog pet’ housekeeper

Social media users were left outraged after a picture of a family and their housekeeper eating at a restaurant in Fego Westwood Mall in Durban went viral. In the picture, a husband and wife can be seen seating at a table, holding their twins, while their housekeeper sits at the table next to them.

What has infuriated social media users is that there is an extra chair at their table, but the housekeeper was excluded. According to Facebook user Nkanyiso KaSfiso Nxumalo, who took the picture, the housekeeper had to watch her employers eat while her job at the restaurant was to sing a lullaby to the twins.

“I had to witness this Fego Westwood Mall. She wasn’t invite to a 4 seater table. She didn’t eat anything. She did sing a lullaby to those twins. But, I’m sure this not racism, it’s just people having dinner with their ‘less than a dog pet’,” he wrote on Facebook.

The couple look like they noticed that the Facebook user had been taking a picture as they seem to be hiding their faces.

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Social media users have asked if it was necessary for the couple to take their housekeeper to a restaurant if they were not planning to treat her with respect. In fact, did she have to wear her uniform at a mall, they asked.

These were some of the comments on social media:

“This is what they think of us, we are mere nothing but animals in their eyes. But how do you do this to another human being who takes care of ur most valuable thing (kids). They have guts I tell yah.”

“I witnessed a family of two parents and one kid bring their helper to the doctor’s surgery and she had to sit outside in the cold while they waited.”

“Who will change the nappies when the twins shit or start crying when they are trying to enjoy their food? I wish we could excel as blacks & get our mothers out of this then we will see who they will hire to take care of their kids.”

The picture was retweeted by EFF leader Julius Malema who, earlier this year, faced criticism after speaking out against Indians in Durban during his party’s fourth-year anniversary celebration.

“I also want to make a call to our fellow Indians here in Natal to respect Africans. They are ill-treating them worse than Afrikaners would do. We don’t want that to continue here in Natal. This is not an anti-Indian statement, it’s the truth. If we tell whites the truth, if we tell blacks the truth, we can as well tell Indians the truth. They must treat our people properly here in KwaZulu-Natal,” he said at the end of July.

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