{"id":848651,"date":"2026-01-23T10:29:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=848651"},"modified":"2026-01-23T10:29:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:29:34","slug":"popular-south-african-fast-food-restaurant-in-hot-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/848651\/popular-south-african-fast-food-restaurant-in-hot-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular South African fast-food restaurant in hot water"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African fast-food chain Steers is in hot water after a video circulated on social media showing restaurant staff performing gardening duties outside one of its outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident took place at a Steers franchise in Menlo Park, Pretoria, which sparked a wide debate about labour practices and worker dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video, which has been widely shared on X, shows several Steers employees dressed in kitchen uniforms removing weeds and clearing overgrown plants outside the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A member of the public filming the scene confronts the restaurant\u2019s manager, accusing the business of abusing its workers by assigning them tasks outside their normal roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The confrontation escalated when the man took gardening tools, including forks and shears, from the workers and angrily threw them into the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footage quickly drew strong reactions online, with many South Africans criticising the franchise for allegedly exploiting staff and blurring the line between kitchen work and manual labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Steers confirmed that it was aware of the video and said it launched an immediate investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company explained<\/a><\/strong> that the situation arose after the landlord delayed maintenance services following the December festive period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Steers, the restaurant manager decided to ask staff to remove excessive weed growth outside the outlet while waiting for the landlord\u2019s service providers to attend to the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSteers is aware of a video showing team members performing gardening tasks outside one of our restaurants on 7 January 2026,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing an immediate investigation, we established that the manager asked team members to remove excessive weed growth due to a delay in landlord maintenance after the December festive period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision was inappropriate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, Steers acknowledged that the decision was inappropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile keeping a clean exterior is important, this work should not be carried out by team members. This is not standard practice at Steers and is unacceptable,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steers added that it has since issued a formal notice to the franchisee, is engaging with the landlord to ensure proper exterior maintenance, and is retraining all restaurant managers on labour practices and role boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also said it is introducing more straightforward operational guidelines to prevent a similar incident in future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSteers is committed to addressing practices that undermine our food safety standards and the dignity and working conditions of our staff,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe value our customers and team members deeply, and they are always our top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fast-food chain is in hot water after a video circulated on social media showing restaurant staff performing gardening duties outside one of its outlets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":846186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[10789,853,9812],"class_list":["post-848651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-famous-brands","tag-south-africa","tag-steers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848661,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848651\/revisions\/848661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}