EFF action against Clicks will hurt many who don’t deserve it

The advert that appeared on Clicks’s website was offensive and hurtful.

It’s the sort of naive, careless and casual promotion of ugly racial stereotypes which can no longer be tolerated in our society. Clicks has acknowledged this, declared itself “devastated”, and apologised profusely for its oversight in allowing a Unilever advert of this nature to appear on its website.

Unilever SA and its product, TRESeme, have accepted responsibility for the advert. They, too, have apologised for both the advert and to Clicks for putting it on their website.

Both have promised to hold the individuals responsible for allowing it to happen accountable.

Clicks, the main target of the EFF campaign, is without doubt culpable, but its role seems to have been limited to being a reprehensibly poor gatekeeper when it comes to allowing partner companies to advertise on its website.

But there can be no doubt that the outrage of our citizenry is entirely justified against both companies. The EFF — after a long period of apparent hibernation — certainly appears to have finally found an issue it feels it can sink its populist teeth into.

The party made the most bizarre demands on Clicks and when it inevitably could not deliver, carried out its threat to shut down Clicks stores across the country.

Unfortunately, in doing so, it didn’t just damage the bottom line of a corporate.

There were women who had travelled long distances to bring their children to be vaccinated who were denied access to the stores. The elderly and sick, whose prescriptions for chronic and other life-saving medications are lodged with the pharmaceutical arm of Clicks, found themselves unable to get these essential meds.

No matter how justified the outrage, shutting down a large health and pharmacy chain with 880 outlets during a devastating pandemic and an economically crippling lockdown seems to be so obviously shortsighted that it is beyond understanding.

The EFF’s decision to hold more than 800 big and small protests across the country just as we come off the peak of a pandemic also beggars belief.

And, if prolonged, the campaign will inevitably lead to job losses — something EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu on Monday lightly dismissed as “unfortunate collateral” to his party’s zeal.

All round, it is a campaign that will hurt many who do not deserve it.

The EFF has made its point strongly and loudly. It should now reconsider pursuing this campaign to its inevitably bitter end.