It was supposed to be a ‘soft’ opening on Monday (February 22), followed by the grand opening on Friday (February 26). However, the food outlet has been buzzing with locals craving the well-known taste of a McDonald’s burger and fries since opening its doors! Former DJ from Ukhozi FM and television celebrity Linda Sibiya was the Master of Ceremonies during the grand opening, and patrons couldn’t resist taking ‘selfies’ with him. Linda says that opening a McDonald’s is a very powerful thing they did for Vryheid and it’s good for the community. “It was an excellent initiative and the location is perfect!” he enthused. Mlu Mathonsi, the executive director for McDonald’s South Africa, saw this project through; from finding a suitable site and the negotiations to the final handover, which was done during the official opening on Friday. Mathonsi says they pride themselves on each and every restaurant, since the service, food and overall look has to compare to all other McDonald’s restaurants across the world. And since he is a local lad from Nqutu, finalising the Vryheid restaurant made him extremely proud. He further mentioned that: “The municipality was the most collaborative municipality I have worked with. I want to honour the municipality because they wanted this and sometimes other municipalities make it very difficult for me. I want to commend them, since we don’t do bribing of any sorts and never did anyone from this municipality indicate that they wanted ‘something’ in return.” Sulaiman Kasoo, owner of the Vryheid McDonald’s, says he never expected the turnout this past week, but reckons that things will calm down in a few days. The grand opening was also attended by a few councillors and Cllr Magda Viktor said a few words: “I taught some of the people in high school who are working here now, so I can attest to the fact that there is already an upliftment of the local area.” The Vryheid Herald asked a few locals for their opinions of the new McDonald’s and here’s what they had to say: Percy Xaba: “We are very happy that the people of Vryheid now have McDonald’s. I was comparing the prices and they are very reasonable and I love the customer service.” Nonjabulo Nkosi: “As Vryheid, it shows that we are growing and this is an awesome establishment.” Aphiwomahle Mthembu: “The food is nice and I really enjoy eating the burgers.”
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