EFF targets H&M in Mall of Africa after ‘racial’ slur

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have recently gone on a surge of protests at H&M stores in Johannesburg and one of the stores affected was at the Mall of Africa on 13 and 15 January.

In an attempt to protest at the store on 13 January, the party was unable to cause a ruckus as the police and Metro police were already outside the store to alleviate any problems.

In a bid to address their frustrations regarding H&M’s recent advert of a black child wearing a hoodie, reading: “Coolest monkey in the jungle,” the EFF saw fit to protest against racism again at the Mall of Africa’s H&M outlet on 15 January.

The freedom party managed to alert awareness as they chanted and sang at the mall. In a statement on Twitter, an EFF spokesperson stated, “What is left out in the entire public narrative on #EFFprotest against H&M anti-black racism is that not even a single item was stolen or looted by EFF ground forces. How much more peaceful and orderly can a protest be?”

EFF’s Solly Mkhize said, “We are here to say to H&M as South Africans, we can never allow ever, to regress our democracy to apartheid days. It cannot be after 350 years, we still have to be subjected to such verbal insults as Africans.”

Heavy police and Metro police presence was noticed at the scene. “We can confirm that the EEF are currently protesting outside the H&M store as we are here at the scene to monitor that no criminal activity takes place and we will, however, remain at the scence until the matter is defused,” the Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police of Gauteng, Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said.

Over these series of protests, H&M has released official statements by the general manager of the Mall of Africa, Johann Fourie who said, “The Mall of Africa can confirm that an EFF protest action that was aimed at the H&M store arrived on 13 January, at the mall but was averted by the mall security team and the police.”

Fourie added that the mall’s security team, police, Metro police and Community Policing Forum members prevented the protest from getting out of hand and prevented damages to the mall’s property. “They ensured the customers’ safety and we can confirm that no shots were fired and no injuries reported.

“The H&M store is closed until further notice and the remainder of the mall and restaurants are trading as normal.”

H&M released a statement on Twitter which stated that they were aware of the recent events and out of the concern for the safety of their employees and customers, they had decided to temporarily close all stores in the area. The clothing company said they strongly believed racism and bias in any shape or form, deliberate or accidental, were simply unacceptable.

“We stress that our staff members had nothing to do with our poor judgment of producing the children’s hoodie and the image.”

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