The health and beauty outlet closed all its outlets on Wednesday morning to offer counselling and support to staff in the wake of the public outrage over a racist ad on its website.
EFF members protest outside a Clicks store at the Sandton City shopping centre in Johannesburg on 7 September 2020. Picture: Kayleen Morgan/EWN
JOHANNESBURG – Clicks Group’s non-executive director Nonkululeko Gobodo on Wednesday said that she had raised a red flag with management a few months ago over the way it was communicating with black customers.
The health and beauty outlet closed all its outlets on Wednesday morning to offer counselling and support to staff in the wake of the public outrage over a racist ad on its website.
Clicks is facing backlash for approving and displaying the ad, which described a black woman’s hair as “dry, damaged and frizzy” comparing it to white hair, which it labelled as “normal”.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) members fanned out across the country this week in a bid to force Clicks to close down, which resulted in many stores damaged in the process.
Gobodo said that the crisis did not come out of nowhere.
“It’s very strange actually. In the last strategic session, this is what I was asking. ‘How are you talking to your black customers?’ And there was even a plan and all of that. And now a few months later, it is proven that the plan is not working. We do have to insist on inclusivity, we want an inclusive economy,” she said.
Clicks said that it would resume trading on Thursday.
The company on Tuesday said that it was working with the government to ensure that it sold more products for black hair. A senior executive stepped down from his position for his involvement in the offensive campaign.
The company also confirmed the suspension of the employees implicated in the saga.
WATCH: ‘Clicks must go to hell’ – EFF protest against store’s racist advert
