The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and British consumer goods company, Unilever, have reached an agreement over the images used in a Clicks online advertisement that denigrated the hair of black women.

The parties held a meeting on Thursday morning over the outrage caused by the image and the protest by EFF members that saw all clicks stores close their doors on Wednesday.

However, stores reopened on Thursday morning with increased security.

EFF meets Clicks management over racist ad: 

Agreement reached

Unilever will withdraw the TREsemme brand from all retail outlets for a period of 10 days, it will issue an apology to all South African and black women in particular, it will donate a minimum of R10 000 sanitary towels and sanitizers to informal settlements identified by the EFF and it will work the party to hold further discussions on transformation within Unilever relating to procurement, empowerment and employment equity.

Clicks to take TREsemme products off its shelves:

The only point where the parties could not reach agreement was on the publication of the names by Unilever of all the employees involved in the production of the images. However, the company will hold internal disciplinary processes to hold those employees accountable.

Protest action

The EFF said on Tuesday its protest against Clicks would continue until Friday despite the High Court in Johannesburg interdicting party’s supporters from intimidating staff and customers.

EFF Spokesperson Vuyani Pambo said they will protest peacefully until Friday.

“It should be clear to Clicks that the court didn’t declare the protest illegal and accordingly, the lawful and peaceful protest continues until Friday accordingly. All members and ground forces of the EFF must intensify their efforts to make sure Clicks doesn’t operate and this must be done through peaceful means. Racists can no longer hide from responsibility in this country and we’ll confront their arrogance decisively without fail.”

Brand impact on Click following racist ad: