Johannesburg – Mpumalanga police are investigating a case of malicious damage to property after a group of suspects attempted to petrol-bomb a Clicks store in Witbank early on Monday.
The arson attempt on the Saveways Clicks store in Witbank came just as the pharmaceutical chain prepared to face off with the EFF, who have called on Clicks to shut down for a week after they published an offensive advert which depicted black women’s hair as “damaged”.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said the store would remain closed until police had concluded their work.
“According to information received, at about 1am, the Clicks store in Saveways, Witbank, there was an arson attack at the store. It did not burn, but some glass doors were cracked,” he said.
Hlathi said police were investigating a case of malicious damage to property. He said police suspect that the attackers arrived in two cars.
EFF leader Julius Malema defended the party’s decision to demonstrate at Clicks stores on Monday. He was speaking from a Clicks store in Seshego, Limpopo.
He said the workers’ jobs were not under threat because of the EFF’s demonstration and they would be paid because they had showed up for work.
Malema also hit back at those who were criticising the party.
“We don’t owe them anything. We choose our battles.
“They don’t vote for us, why must we worry about them?” he asked.
Meanwhile, other EFF top six leaders including deputy president Floyd Shivambu and Marshall Dlamini were leading demonstrations at Sandton City and the Mall of Africa, respectively.
Meanwhile, TRESemmé South Africa and Unilever have also apologised for their advert, which was the source of the furore. Their advert was published on the Clicks website.
In a statement on the Unilever website, TRESemme South Africa said: “We are very sorry that images used in a TRESemmé South Africa marketing campaign on the Clicks website promote racist stereotypes about hair.
“The campaign set out to celebrate the beauty of all hair types and the range of solutions that TRESemmé offers, but we got it wrong.
“The images are not in line with the values of our brand, or of Clicks.
“TRESemmé South Africa apologises for the offence these images have caused. We also apologise to the Clicks group.
“We are looking into how this happened and why it wasn’t picked up, and we will take all necessary steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” the group said.
IOL