Dis-Chem has divided South Africans with many opting to search for competitors as boycott seems likely. Photo: Hein Kaiser
Dis-Chem will feel the pain of the damage to its reputation for some time to come.
The wage of sin is Google, as every story written and every comment about the company keeps its online footprint forever.
Within hours of the Dis-Chem internal memorandum detailing its no-white policy being leaked, online behaviour switched to suggest a boycott.
Searches for Dis-Chem relative to its employment policy skyrocketed over the weekend, said digital marketing practitioner Michele Venter of Bold Online.
Venter said: “Consumers voted with their mouses and searches for competitive brands like Clicks saw a massive, immediate spike. Especially for the term ‘Clicks near me’, and this indicates that the public are looking for alternatives to shopping at Dis-Chem.”
And it was an immediate response, she added.
On Monday morning, Dis-Chem remained a trending Twitter topic in South Africa. Everyone weighed in.
South African YouTuber Sihle Ngobese, also known as Big Daddy Liberty said on Twitter: “I’m promoting you because you have the right skin colour needed to help me avoid a fine”.
“That’s what Dis-chem essentially told its employees to appease racist politicians and woke political elites. This is a sick society… and some of you are desperate to normalize it”, Ngobese added.
“Our society has been so abused and brainwashed by the racialism of today’s political elites and our history’s racism.
“Ordinarily sane people will defend Dis-Chem-type racism because they’ve been dribbled into thinking it is ‘redress’. Racial bean-counting and quotas are racism! [sic]”.
Thousands of Tweets echoed Ngobese’s sentiments.
Another read: “They are actually saying “I am promoting you because you are not good enough to do the job”
Another said: “Hi Dis-Chem, since you’re so averse to white people, please be reassured that I’ll do all my shopping elsewhere going forward”.
“And shall strongly encourage all I meet to do the same. Thanks [sic]”, the user concluded.
There has been some support for Dis-Chem’s position.
A tweet read: “Even if Dis-Chem can do a skills audit, most whites don’t have relevant qualifications and are not hired on merit. Their rant is purely about a privilege that has been rattled.”
Attorney Ottilia Anna MaSibanda, whose profile jokingly suggests that she is the author of the next Steve Hofmeyer book, A Zulu Owns My Stoep, tweeted about the debacle: “Justice & equity only feel like oppression to those whose privilege came from oppressing others.”
ALSO READ: Fury over Dis-Chem letter on hiring of whites
Venter said that accusations of all kinds of racism continue to stream in far and wide, and from all racial groups.
She said: “It will take a very long time, if at all, for Dis-Chem’s reputation to recover. Especially online.”
Consumers are already giving bad online reviews to the group. When googling the brand now, negative news dominates the search terms and appear at the top of the search page.
“That cannot be a good outcome for any brand.”
Dis-Chem chief executive Ivan Saltzman’s letter has done the job of dividing South Africans successfully.
AfriForum boss Kallie Kriel tweeted over the weekend that Saltzman should be the first to give himself the boot as he implements the company’s policy.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba called Dis-Chem’s ideology downright racist.
According to the Jewish Board, the negativity has also spilt over to the Jewish community.
It tweeted with concern: “The Dis-chem letter has elicited high emotions”.
The Jewish Board added: “Sadly, this has resulted in blatant aggression towards Jewish South Africans. We condemn these vile comments in the strongest terms”.
Dis-Chem told trade union Solidarity, which first leaked the letter over the weekend, that it had retracted the letter.
But in media reports, the company said it stood by its statement.
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