IN A STATEMENT from their attorney, this afternoon, the organisers of the "Durban Diwali Shopping Festival" said the food stallholders did not intend to offend any member of the Hindu community when they inadvertently advertised beef products for sale.
Earlier this week, Hindus called for a boycott of the “Durban Diwali Shopping Festival” at the Old Durban Drive Inn site, after it was alleged that some food stalls were selling beef.
The festival organisers assured Hindus that no beef products were sold or permitted to be sold at the festival.
They said on Monday they were forced to change the name of the festival to the India Shopping Festival after receiving multiple abusive and threatening messages on social media.
Their attorney Hoosen Kader said: “There has clearly been a misunderstanding which arose after the stallholders failed to block off the beef products from their advertising banners during the festival.
“Kalyan Sahai, a senior organiser of the India Shopping Festival Group, is a staunch Hindu and he, together with his team of organisers, have not permitted and would not permit beef or beef products to be sold,” said Kader.
“The festival is a joint initiative with stallholders comprising Indian and South African nationals from both the Hindu and Muslim communities. Sahai had led the group in organising similar festivals throughout South Africa for the past seven years. The festival is aimed at providing an excellent shopping venue for Diwali, Eid, Christmas, weddings, engagements, other celebrations and occasional shopping trips.
“The ambiance and attractively low prices, and a community spirit merges Hindu, Muslim, Christian and others and caters, without discrimination, for members of different religious groups,” Kader added.
He said a few of the stall holders at the festival acknowledged and accepted - prior to leasing stalls - that beef products may not be sold at such a festival out of respect for the Hindu religion, which prohibited the consumption of beef.
“They accepted that utensils used for the production of vegetable dishes must be restricted to this purpose only, in order to avert contamination. Only a few stall owners had sold their products at other festivals. They had advertising boards previously made and inadvertently, without blocking out reference to beef products, affixed such boards at their stalls. This does not detract from the fact that they did not intend to, nor did they sell any beef products whatsoever at such stalls,” he added.
Kader said the stallholders did not intend to offend any member of the Hindu community.
“The Hindu community are our valued customers at the festival. It is axiomatic that one of the target markets of the festival is the Hindu community and it would be commercially counter-productive to give offence to them. Not blocking out beef products from the advertisement boards was an inadvertent but bona fide mistake.
“Signs will be put up at the festival that clearly identify stalls which sell purely vegetable dishes as a special service for vegetarians,” Kader said.