Catzavelos admitted in his apology statement, published by Jacaranda News, that the video was “thoughtless and insensitive”.
“I have watched my video and feel total shame. It’s hard to put into words what I want to say and genuinely apologise. I don’t expect people to forgive me, but I will spend the rest of my life repenting and trying to make up for my total lack of respect and judgement,” the statement reads.

Business impact
In the wake of the video and subsequent outrage, the South African Human Rights Commission received several complaints and the EFF laid criminal charges of crimen injuria against him.
His family announced that he was fired from the family business, St George’s Fine Foods.
The Hellenic, Italian and Portuguese (HIP) Alliance distanced itself from his comments, though it acknowledged that there were still South Africans who harboured similar views.
“Whilst we are of the view that Mr Catzavelos utterances are in the minority, they do nonetheless highlight the need for all of us to redouble our efforts at building a non-racist, non-sexist, democratic South Africa that we can all be proud of,” the HIP said.
The outrage also had an impact on the family business as clients deserted it to express their displeasure.
“I’m disgusted and I condemn fully his actions. I believe couldn’t believe what he did,” Dragan Krunic, director of the Rib Zone said on Wednesday.
Butcher Boys director Derryck Myers expressed his shock at the news that a key supplier was tainted by racism.
“We had a conference call and we are disassociating ourselves immediately from St George’s,” Myers said.
But despite the outrage, a number of social media users demonstrated their support for Catzavelos’ racist comments.
Prior to deleting his social media profiles following the scandal, Twitter user Miguel Victor concurred with Catzavelos’ view, tweeting: “I know how he feels, I’m on a beach in Europe and there’s not one here, lol.”
Pat Dickens tweeted in response: “Spent the day at a beach in China. My sentiments exactly.”
School ban
Catzavelos has also been barred from his sons’ private school following the incident.
“Because of the actions of this parent, the matter has, quite rightly, assumed a high public profile,” the school said in a statement.
Catzavelos’ wife works for Nike and though the sports apparel company closed some of its South African stores on Wednesday, they appeared to be trading as normal on Thursday.

Source: News24