Stores trashed, closed as EFF protests against Clicks’ ‘racism’

Shortly after health and cosmetics retailer Clicks failed to persuade a court to interdict the EFF from its nationwide antiracism protest at the company’s outlets on Monday, people clad in the party’s regalia trashed a store in Komani.

Other Clicks stores in the Eastern Cape, including in Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, East London, Mdantsane and Makhanda, were forced to close as the EFF embarked on a nationwide campaign to shut the retailer’s outlets as anger mounted over a racially charged advertisement the company had placed on its website.

The hair-care advert described the hair of two African women as “dry, damaged, frizzy and dull” while describing two white women’s hair as “colour-treated, fine, flat and normal”.

Monday’s protests took place after a social media uproar at the weekend which resulted in Clicks taking the advert down.

The company apologised, but the EFF has demanded that those responsible be fired.

Weighing in on the EFF campaign, former public protector Thuli Madonsela said the violence that accompanied the protest undermined the protesters’ cause.

Madonsela said protest was the language of the unheard and violence was the language of the disempowered.

“Are we going to have people die possibly over hair?

“Also, logically Clicks is a trading company.

“Nobody could suggest Clicks is going out of its way to insult its customers,” she said, adding parliament should call Clicks’ management to explain themselves.

In Port Elizabeth, the Greenacres and Walmer Park stores were closed, as was the Uitenhage Clicks.

Though the doors were shut, a small group protested outside the outlets in Greenacres and The Bridge.

According to police spokespersons Sandra Janse van Rensburg and Gerda Swart, members of the public order policing unit and local police officers monitored the protests.

“No reports of any vandalism by the protesters, however; some stores closed doors for fear of intimidation to staff and customers,” Janse van Rensburg said.

In Komani,  EFF supporters went on the rampage, storming  into the Cathcart Road Clicks and trashing aisles before proceeding  to the Nonesi Mall branch.

EFF provincial chair Yazini Tetyana led the red berets in their protest, with  about 15 EFF  supporters vandalising the store and shouting “enough is enough with this racism”.

Tetyana called for whoever was responsible for the advert to “face jail time” and labelled Clicks a “racist brand”.

“We are against any element that seeks to portray a certain group of people as inferior to others because SA does not have a place for racists.

“We will continue with this programme for the whole week because we want the company to lose money for what they did,” she said.

Nonesi Mall customers ran out of the centre as EFF members arrived, with some shouting that there was a robbery.

Some senior citizens were shoved to the ground as people tried to run out, causing a minor stampede at one of the entrances.

No-one was seriously injured.

Komani police spokesperson Captain Namhla Mdleleni said a case of destruction to property had been reported at the Mlungisi police station.

Further afield, the Clicks branch in the Lemon Tree mall in Alberton, Ekurhuleni, was vandalised and torched, resulting in the closure of the whole mall.

In Port Elizabeth, EFF regional secretary  Siyasanga Gidana said they had received a call from their national leadership to ensure all Clicks stores could not operate.

“We’re here to teach Clicks a lesson to respect black people; their forefathers killed black people and we didn’t hold that against them as they never killed anyone.

“However, it is shocking after everything black people went through during apartheid that, after 25 years of democracy, they find it that easy to discriminate [against] black people.

“Black people are the majority here, they must treat black people as equally as they treat other human beings.”

She said theirs was a silent protest, but if they needed to fight they would, and they didn’t care if that included the police.

“Both Greenacres Clicks, Kenako Mall, both Uitenhage Clicks are closed, Govan Mbeki  Clicks stores, the Walmer Park shopping centre and the MetLife Village Centre Clicks will be next.”

In Makhanda, only five protesters showed up and when a reporter visited  the store was closed.

On Sunday night, EFF leader Julius Malema called on the party’s members to “attack”.

The DA has urged the police to charge Malema for inciting violence.

DA MP Andrew Whitfield said the closure of Clicks stores would contribute to the high unemployment rate that was worsened by Covid-19.

Lobby group AfriForum, meanwhile,  condemned the police for allegedly not acting when the Clicks stores were vandalised during the protests across the country.

“AfriForum today [Monday] requested General Bheki Cele, the minister of police, to act decisively against the perpetrators who vandalised and damaged Clicks shops across the country,” the civil organisation said in a statement.

It said that police had failed in their duty to protect citizens during the violent protests.

“Julius Malema and other EFF leaders’ public incitement of violence should have placed the police on standby to prevent what we have seen today.

“Yet it seems that not a single person has been arrested whose crimes had been recorded on video,” AfriForum legal and risk manager Marnus Kamfer said.

He said the EFF and their followers’ actions, together with the inability of police to bring to book those involved in the acts, were proof that communities should organise and safeguard themselves.

“Communities and individuals can and must protect themselves within the framework of the law.

“Today’s [Monday’s] events underscore this once again.”

— Additional reporting by Bhongo Jacob, Mkhululi Ndamase, Adrienne Carlisle, Ernest Mabuza and Iavan Pijoos

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