Clicks SA is facing the full wrath of the outrage it caused with the racially triggering images that were found on its website on Friday 4 September.
Clicks stores raided by EFF rioters
An apology from the cosmetics giant came but it fell on deaf ears. The tone-deaf ‘natural hair’ campaign was too much of a trigger to simply ignore.
These sentiments have since become the backbone of the Clicks nationwide shutdown that’s led by Julius Malema and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
Malema’s enraged voice ruptured the internet, on Sunday. The EFF leader called on a fullscale attack of all major Clicks stores in South Africa, declaring that “we are ready for the ultimate sacrifice in defence of black people.”
“If they want war give it to them including any landlord of any mall who refuses you entrance. No one must disrespect black people after 2013 without any consequences if it means death so be it,” he exclaimed in a tweet.
The instruction from the commander-in-chief was heard across the nation and on Monday, several Clicks stores around the country were barricaded by a platoon of Red Berets.
Watch: Red berets barricade stores nationwide
Here are some videos of the riots that have broken out so far:
Queenstown, Eastern Cape
Mall of the North, Polokwane
Goodwood, Cape Town
V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
Mall of Africa, Midrand
Sedibeng, Gauteng
Primrose Square, Germinston
Clicks SA stifles riots with legal arm
The cosmetics giant has since recruited the legal services of Werkmens Attorneys to, at the very least, mitigate the situation with the EFF.
In the letter sent to the political party’s press office, Werkmens laid the blame squarely on Clicks’ third-party suppliers in beauty and cosmetics, Unilever and TRESemme.
According to Clicks, the controversial advert was coded onto their website by a supplier. All of this meant nothing to the EFF, who had resolved that the only definitive response to hints of systemic racism must be quelled with violence.
“You racist lawyers of Pravin Jamnandas Gordhan, and your racist client CLICKS can go to the nearest hell,” was the EFF’s response to the Werkmens letter.
At the time of publishing this article, riots at Clicks stores nationwide were ongoing.
