Cape Town -
It’s a case of did these little piggies go to market, or did they stay at home.
The Congress of SA Students in the Western Cape (Cosas WC) claims three more pigs’ heads have been placed in Woolworths stores but Woolworths denies this.
And although Cosas WC this week changed tack and agreed to provisionally “postpone” its controversial campaign of dumping pigs’ heads in Woolworths stores to protest the retailer stocking Israeli goods, the organisation has not said where or when it placed the three “missing” pigs’ heads.
Cosas WC provincial secretary Siphelo Makaleni said on Saturday the group would “not yet” announce in which stores the heads had been placed as it expected Woolworths to admit it was aware of the three heads.
But this was denied by Woolworths. “There was only ever one incident we are aware of,” the retailer said on Saturday.
Last month there was a furore after a Cosas WC member placed a pig’s head on a shelf of the Woolworths store in Sea Point.
It later emerged the head had been placed in the halaal section of the store.
A picture of a man standing next to the pig’s head was uploaded to social media sites and shared widely.
It has since been removed and the Twitter account that first posted the picture has become inactive.
The protest was widely criticised for being anti-Semitic.
In a statement after the incident, Woolworths said the action was “unacceptable and offensive to our employees and customers, particularly Jewish and Muslim employees and customers” while the South African Jewish Board of Deputies said it was “appalled by this hate-filled demonstration”.
This week, seven pigs’ heads were placed outside the Woolworths city centre head office.
Members of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions SA group subsequently met Cosas WC and the provincial ANC Youth League, leading to Cosas WC agreeing to suspend its pig’s head campaign.
According to a BDS statement, Cosas WC had disclosed during the meeting that there were “at least three pigs heads still in various Woolworths stores that Woolworths has either tried to cover up or has not as yet located” and “Cosas WC does not believe that the media fairly covered their actions”.
Cosas WC “reserved the right to resume (the campaign) if Woolworths does not withdraw their trade from Israel”.
The ANC has criticised the pig’s head campaign, calling it “misguided and extremely unfortunate”.
While pledging to lobby Woolworths to stop trade with Israel, Cosas national leadership has also distanced itself from the Western Cape grouping’s behaviour.
- Sunday Argus