Xolani Koyana
COMPANIES trading with Israel could soon be the target of the same boycott campaign as Woolworths, the National Coalition for Palestine said yesterday.
The coalition, consisting of human rights activists, religious groups, civil society, political parties and trade unions, estimates that Woolworths is losing just more than R7.8 million a month because of the boycott campaign. It also says the retail chain store has lost R31.2m since the beginning of the campaign in August.
The figures are based on a study conducted by Ciara Gatonby, a researcher at Wits University. The coalition had called for the campaign with the hopes that the retailer would end trade relationships with Israel over its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Coalition chairman the Rev Edwin Arrison said the campaign would continue until the company pulled out of its business with Israel.
He vowed once they were done with Woolworths, the campaign would target other companies doing business with Israel.
Although Woolworths bought less than 1 percent of its produce from Israel, and there were companies trading on a larger scale, the coalition said it was focusing on Woolworths because it was smaller and could easily withdraw from “the apartheid state”.
“We will be taking a decision then on who to target next. We will not overstretch ourselves, we want to focus on one company at a time,” Arrison said.
The coalition told reporters in the CBD that an impact report compiled by Gatonby shows that the campaign had reached 3.8 million people on social media.
The survey – on which the figures are based – conducted by Gatonby, in which she interviewed 3 296 people who have taken part in the boycott against Woolworths, shows that 33 percent of the people interviewed had shopped at Woolworths about four times a month, while 52 percent went more than five times in the same period.
Woolworths shareholder Marthie Momberg, who was speaking on behalf of Kairos Southern Africa, encouraged consumers to take part in the boycott.
“That means to not buy anything, no food, clothes, nothing from Woolworths. That is the small thing that we can do for Palestinians,” Momberg said.
The group said it would protest outside Woolworths House in Longmarket Street tomorrow when the company holds its annual general meeting.
Woolworths group director of retail operations Paula Disberry denied the company had made a loss as a result of the campaign and said she had no idea how the figure of R7.8m was reached.
“Woolworths sales have continued to grow from year to year,” she submitted.
She said the campaign had extended beyond raising awareness and includes intimidation of customers and staff, resulting in Woolworths taking legal action against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions SA.