National
EFF shreds H&M stores─── 07:55 Sun, 14 Jan 2018
Johannesburg - Rubber bullets were fired at the East Rand Mall yesterday when Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) members, protesting against H&M, began looting its shop.
The EFF staged protests at H&M shops in Gauteng, the Western Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal against racism in a catalogue photograph in which a little black boy wears a hoodie bearing the slogan “coolest money in the jungle”.
The protests affected six of the group’s 17 South African stores and H&M announced yesterday it would close all its shops in the country until further notice.
Gauteng police spokesperson, Lungelo Dlamini, said police had to intervene at the East Rand Mall because protesters were emptying the shop. Dlamini was not aware of any arrests.
At other shops, such as in Menlyn Park in the east of Pretoria, protesters in red EFF T-shirts and berets pushed members of the public aside and chased them after they began taking photos and videos.
At every vandalised shop, almost every piece of clothing was thrown to the ground and mirrors and mannequins were broken. No one was injured.
EFF leader Julius Malema told a party gathering in Polokwane yesterday that protesters had shown H&M what would happen if it humiliated black people.
