Pretoria - THE Regional EFF in Tshwane has warned that they will keep watch over Clicks stores around the City to ensure they keep their doors shut until Friday.
Clicks stores in the Pretoria CBD, Menlyn Mall, Centurion, Silverton, and many other areas around Tshwane have been shut down on the second day of protests against the retailer due to the racist advert for hair product TreSemmé.
Members of the party were dispersed to some of the stores as part of a backlash about the advert for TreSemmé products in which black women’s hair was described as “dry and damaged” while white women’s hair was represented as flat and fine.
EFF Tshwane Regional Chairperson Moafrika Mabogwana said the reports they had received from members dispatched to all Clicks stores in the City, were that majority by far had complied and closed down their shops accordingly.
Mabogwana said they only had a few stores that risked opening such as the stores in the Centurion area but that all had been attended to.
“We found that in certain instances like in Centurion after the fighters left the store reopened for business, but we have attended to that and can confidently say all of their stores in Tshwane are closed now.”
“We will keep it like this until Friday. We are not over-reacting to this issue, we can’t keep letting companies undermine black people and the practical way to do this is to make them feel the consequences thereof is to make sure they lose profit.”
Mabogwana said the members were protesting peacefully and cooperating with the local police who also there to ensure their (the fighters) safety.
He said the reason they were happy to have police present was that they were accosted by members of a private security company armed with rifles upon their arrival at Menlyn on Monday when protests kicked-off.
Protest action by the EFF has been reported at 425 Clicks stores across South Africa today despite Acting Judge Norman Manoim interdicting the party – along with those “acting in concert with it or pursuant to instructions from it”- from inciting violence against the retailer’s “ordinary commercial operations”.
He also barred the party and its supporters from intimidating Clicks customers and staff.
Manoim issued the interdict on Tuesday morning, in response to a second urgent application brought by the retailer on Monday night after its first one was dismissed on a legal technicality.
At last count 51 stores were closed in the Western Cape, 92 in Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Eastern Cape, and 302 in Gauteng and elsewhere.
Pretoria News