On 4 August 2020, Ms. Lin Yang, a corporate executive from Singapore, instituted an action in Cape Town High Court against South Africa Butler Academy Close Corporation (SABA), Butler Holdings Pty Ltd (BH), Butler Training (BT), Guild Recruitment Close Corporation (GR), Mr. Newton Hilton Cross and his husband, Mr. Willem Adriaan Coetzer.

Ms. Yang had taken at face value misrepresentations made by the companies and Mr. Cross, who had claimed, amongst other things, to have been the butler of four presidents and a line of celebrities, including Mr. Mandela, George Bush Senior, Tiger Wood, Uma Thurman, etc. In May 2019, she paid a training fee of 5,200 USD and enrolled in the eight-week “butler training programme in the World No.1 Butler School.” After two days, she was evicted by Mr. Cross, who would not return her fee.

Ms Lin Yang stated, “The highly-surveillanced environment at SABA reminds me of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, while the defendants and their employees glorified and promoted themselves during the course of intimidating the students. The atmosphere was suffocating and the ‘training’ insulting to any adult’s intelligence.”

Ms. Yang’s subsequent research connected her with hospitality industry owners who had won court cases against the defendants, and many ex-students who had signed up after being enticed by advertisements for “high-paying jobs.” that did not in fact appear to exist. Click to view Ms. Yang’s high court action summons.

If you would like to share information about the defendants, please contact the chief litigant, Ms. Lin Yang [link to an email doc to ylin63@hotmail.com]

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.