Two wrongs don’t make a right, EFF

The destructive scenes carried out by Economic Freedom Fighters’ members at H&M stores in malls across the country on Saturday must be condemned.

After the Swedish clothing giant’s online catalogue featured an advertisement of a black boy sporting a hoodie with the words “coolest monkey in the jungle” on it, the EFF took out their anger on H&M shops nationwide.

H&M closed its stores in Gauteng and Cape Town out of regard for the safety of staff and customers.

While H&M must certainly be held accountable for the pain and anger that resulted from their ill-considered and insensitive campaign, that doesn’t make it right for people to turn to violence and take the law into their own hands.

Police fired rubber bullets at the East Rand mall, highlighting the danger the protesters’ actions put innocent bystanders in. EFF leader Julius Malema insisted his party would not apologise.

“We cannot allow the humiliation of black people to continue. No one should make jokes about the dignity of black people. “We make no apology about what the fighters did against H&M. All over South Africa, H&M stores are closed because they called our children baboons. So we are teaching them a lesson,” Malema said.

“If they didn’t know a monkey, they know it today. We are not going to allow anyone to use the colour of our skin to humiliate us, to exclude us. “We are black. We are proud. We are black and beautiful. We are black and not ashamed of being black,” he added.

There are a number of other options to take to protest against the actions of others. Resorting to violence and destruction is not one.

Those that took part in the vandalism must be held accountable.

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