Gwen Ngwenya takes on Julius Malema over shutdown ‘double standards’

The DA's head of policy, Gwen Ngwenya, has taken shots at EFF leader Julius Malema after his comments regarding the Clicks protests.

Speaking at the height of the national Clicks protests this week, Malema said white racists should leave SA for Australia if they feel uncomfortable with the party's actions.

“Leave Clicks and white racism to the EFF, we will deal with it. We will deal with white racists. No white racist man should feel comfortable in SA,” said Malema. “We have to make the lives of white racists so uncomfortable that they are on the next flight to Australia.”

The protests at Click stores came after the retailer's hair advert sparked a huge backlash. The advert, which has been removed from the Clicks website, describes the natural hair of a black woman as “dry, damaged, frizzy and dull” and the hair of a white woman as “fine, flat and normal”.

The retailer issued an apology for the advert and all staff responsible for publishing it have been suspended. An unidentified senior executive at Clicks, who was responsible for the offensive advert, resigned amid the controversy.

Hair company TRESemmé, apologised for the advert after it was revealed by Clicks that it had commissioned it. The company said it was investigating the matter.

TimesLIVE reported that at least 425 Clicks stores were affected by the shutdown call led by the EFF, and seven stores were damaged.

Reacting to Malema's statement, Ngwenya suggested that if companies can be shut down for their transgressions, so should political party leaders who are involved in corruption. She said a political party should be shut down and deregistered with the Electoral Commission of SA.

Ngweny's corruption shade was in reference to the EFF allegedly being linked to the collapse of VBS Mutual Bank and looting funds.

Last year, Sunday Times reported that Malema allegedly personally benefited from VBS funds, and companies that did business with the Limpopo government and the party's lawyers allegedly also benefited.

Malema has denied all claims related to VBS looting.

LISTEN | 'They must apologise to all of us' - Celebs weigh in on Clicks 'racist' advert outrage: 

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