‘Unilever must do more’ says government
Company should take SA products to international markets, minister says
Unilever may have reached an agreement with the EFF to temporarily remove its TRESemmé products from stores as it tries to make amends for a racist advert it supplied to Clicks, but the government wants the company to do more.
Small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Friday that the government wanted Unilever to commit to sourcing local products for the SA market, as well as licensing them for its global networks.
Unilever said that, in terms of an agreement with the EFF, which led nationwide protests at Clicks stores last week after the retailer posted the ad on its website, it would remove TRESemmé products from shops for 10 days.
Ntshavheni said: “The EFF is entitled to get into any agreement it gets into. As a government minister I will not accept the 10 days. I want more. I need more. I need Unilever to source products locally. I need it to license some of the South African products and take them to international markets where it is operating.
“Because I am the minister responsible for small and medium enterprises [SMEs], I would like it to license products made by SMEs for its international markets.”
Unilever did not respond to requests for comment on the minister’s position.
But in a statement on Friday, it apologised to Clicks and the public and said it would set up a new “diversity and inclusion assets committee“, representative of consumers, to make future campaigns “reflect our values.” It would also work to provide support to black hair stylists and small salons.
The fallout from the advert prompted Woolworths, Pick n Pay, Checkers, Dis-Chem and Massmart to follow Clicks in removing TRESemmé products from their shelves. Spar declined to comment on whether it was withdrawing the products.
Clicks pulled TRESemmé products after a statement from the department of small business development rejected the retailer’s apology, saying it didn’t go far enough.
Ntshavheni said the gap left by pulling TRESemmé products should be “occupied by products from SMEs in SA, in particular black women, youthowned and those owned by people with disabilities.” She said Clicks has committed to work with the government to do so.
Ntshavheni said the government needed to protect its economy and promote the interests of its citizens. “Look at what America is doing to promote American products . Look at what China is doing to promote Chinese products, look at what Europe is doing to promote European products. Look at what the UK is doing to promote the UK products.”
Unilever SA tried to keep a low profile this week, at first declining to comment on the issue besides the online apology by TRESemmé posted on the companies’ websites.
Clicks CEO Vikesh Ramsunder said the apology initially posted by TRESemmé and Unilever was not “sufficient.”
“That is why I have been so angry with them. I would have been very happy to share this accountability with them, but I have had to bear the brunt of it.”
Ramsunder said his group accepted accountability, and the staff who approved the advert “should have known better”. He said he was also “very angry” with his team.
This is not the first time Unilever has offended consumers. In 2017 a Facebook advert for Dove soap showed a black woman changing into a white one.
Ramsunder said Unilever and
TRESemmé had apologised, but “until TRESemmé understands the depth of the pain this has caused, we are maintaining our view that we will keep it off shelves for now”.
He said while Clicks is diverse, with black people making up 60% of the board and women comprising 40%, the teams that provide oversight are “potentially not diverse enough” when it comes to signing off adverts. He said the incident was a “watershed” moment for the group, which would strengthen processes to ensure there are more checks and balances in place to prevent something like this happening again.
The digital marketing team that uploads adverts from the group’s suppliers consisted of five members: two black people, two whites and one coloured person. The two members who approved the advert were suspended and one of them, a senior executive in charge of marketing, resigned.
Ramsunder said: “If you had all five people signing it off, because the team is diverse, you would have better control. ”— BusinessTimes
I need Unilever to source products locally. I need it to license some of the SA products for global markets where it is operating