Times Of Swaziland: AFROBOTANICS SPEAKS AGAINST CLICKS AD AFROBOTANICS SPEAKS AGAINST CLICKS AD ================================================================================ BY THEMBELANI NHLABATSI on 09/09/2020 07:36:00 MBABANE – In the wake of the furore that erupted over the past weekend due to an advertisement by hair product company TRESemme, which was published on the Clicks website, AfroBotanics has responded. In light of the ongoing reactions from the public regarding the Clicks advertisement, which caused an uproar last Friday, where black hair was portrayed as ‘dry and damaged’ while Caucasian hair was portrayed as ‘neat and straight’. The AfroBotanics hair care range, which is owned by liSwati-born businesswoman Ntombenhle Khathwane has featured some local and South African personalities such as Lindokuhle Mthupha and Pearl Thusi in one of their social media campaigns. Disappointed It caters to the needs of kinky African hair and Thusi also distributes her hair care range named Black Pearl Hair under the same company. In an interview with SABC news’ Chriselda Lewis last Friday, Khathwane said she was disappointed over the matter. “When I first saw the emails, tweets and reactions over the matter, I was disappointed and confused because this was not the Clicks I had known and partnered with,” she said. She further revealed that after the whole debacle got heated, she received messages from her product’s supporters to remove her products from the Clicks shelves into other retail outlets. Subsequent to her interview with the news outlet, Khathwane then issued a statement on her Facebook page regarding her stand with the retailer. In the statement, she said AfroBotanics had been partners with Clicks for four years and they had the best experience with them in terms of their support of a black female-owned brand while pioneering the natural hair category in the country. ⁣ Damaging “We have had conversations with management at Clicks and we are looking forward to their response and action on such a hurtful and damaging issue.” ⁣ She further highlighted that over 60 per cent of shoppers at Clicks were black women, who deserved better. Khathwane also added that through the experiences she had with Clicks they would time and again host events that catered to different brands caring for African hair from all over the world to come together and share ideas on how they could improve their brands. With that said, she mentioned that gathering her conversations with the retail company, they were also in shock over the advertisement because it was content from a third party, which they were fighting on behalf of. “Regardless of the circumstances, I believe that it should not have happened under their watch especially in the year 2020,” she said. The businesswoman also shared that during her conversations with the retailer after the hysteria they asked her and other clients what they could do to make it better, to which she said more representation by black women was needed on their marketing platforms. Clicks expressed their sincerest apologies on the matter following the outrage it caused last Friday afternoon. Instigated The local retailers for Clicks have not been affected by the demand to close shop, which was instigated by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as they were operating normally yesterday. Local people also took to their social media platforms to express their discontent over the same issue, although some of them had turned it into a laughing matter. By the time of going to print, it had been reported by eNCA that all Tresemme products were to be delisted and removed from Clicks shelves. Local haircare products to be expanded. Clicks has accepted the resignation of the senior executive responsible & suspended all employees involved in publishing the advertisement. In an interview with this publication, Khathwane said Clicks Stores was available in five southern African countries including Eswatini and so was the brand TRESemme that created the offensive content, which appeared on the Clicks website. “In essence, Tresemme, an international brand owned by Unilever, offended all black women all over the world, and I am very happy that Clicks is removing that product from their stores,” she remarked. She stated that she found it to be a violent assault on the identities of black girls and black women and that it was racist and it is inexcusable. “I hope that this inspires the women of Eswatini to take ownership of the narrative and create products and lobby for retail chains to carry them. Just because a retail chain is international doesn’t mean they should carry local content. Earned “At this stage money earned by emaSwati goes to South Africa. We need more local women manufacturing products because that is the way to create an economy that can employ people,” mentioned Khathwane. As an Eswatini-born woman, who has been able to grow her AfroBotanics brand so that it is supplied in big retail chains like Clicks, she said she was in the process of establishing a manufacturing base in Eswatini as well, which would be her contribution to the country. “When we allow other people, other races, other countries to make products for us, they own the narrative and can tell us what to think of ourselves,” she concluded.