A top-notch Mother’s Day event organised by True Elegance restaurant in Bulawayo turned disastrous as some guests allegedly suffered from food poisoning after they consumed substandard food at the event.
The event which was held at Euphoria Gardens attracted over 520 guests and featured live music performances from Jeys Marabini, Thandanani women’s ensemble and Thandi Dlana.
However, what was meant to be a day of celebrating the mothers who came from various places turned sour due to poor organisation.
Some sources who spoke to CITE revealed that the organiser had promised a three-course meal and entertainment from the mentioned artists.
“We were promised a red carpet with professional photographers and free presents for our dear mothers. People were paying in different currencies as she was targeting people in the diaspora. I paid 53 pounds including transport. True Elegance was supposed to do the cooking but now the challenge is that our mothers didn’t get the food that was promised. They were served poor quality food,” said the source.
“Our mothers left home around 6am as there were different pick-up points. We are talking about old people with different chronic diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, some can’t even walk and we were trying by all means to make them happy on this particular day but this lady spoiled it for everyone.
Old people had to queue to get food, the mistake was that this lady got greedy and wanted to pull up the mother of all parties, to prove that she can pull off a biggest event in Zimbabwe, but we feel like she took chances as she knew she was dealing with old people,” said the sources.
Another client said they had bought presents for their mothers but some didn’t receive them as they reportedly went missing.
Contacted for a comment, the event organiser and CEO of True Elegance, Patscencia Vundla said the catering team let her down.
“Everything was a mess; the event was well organised from the beginning to the end with 520 guests. I have proof for everything, I bought a cow, of all events that I have done since I started in the event industry I have never gone out of my way like this event. The catering team I had hired prepared poor quality food,” said Vundla.
Vundla said she will compensate the guests by offering them a free buffet meal.
“Thus, all I can offer now because they are saying they want refunds but I don’t have money, the event was expensive, I paid over 7 000 for the venue only. Not everyone had paid, some were needy people, some from church, and some wanted discounts as loyal customers, out of everything I didn’t get a cent because I wanted the event to be top-notch, I hired a live band Jeyz Marabini of which it’s not cheap,” said Vundla.
Nonsense!
We just was a refund event was disaster our mothers did not eat
I think she was sabotaged by the people she worked with,i do not think she can sabotage herself whilst she is on the verge of expanding her business in SA as well.l think caterers that were hired weren’t on par with the standard expected by the people.Next time do not pinch the pennies when it comes to catering or rather do not engage people that you know rather ask oMama be church or esigabeni bezopheka they wouldn’t have let you down like this.Lack of Menu planning nje qha they could have made a garden salad as a starter,beef stew,chicken,fish and maybe ezangaphakathi for mains with sides like rice,samp,pap,jeqe etc and then some cake or icecream for dessert.Cheapest menu ever.But ke so sorry to all parties involved
Did the organizers offer any explanations or apologies for the disappointing outcome of the Rip off! Mother’s Day event?