Ads seek to portray rainbow nation that doesn’t exist, EFF tells SAHRC hearing

The party’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi told the South African Human Rights Commission’s hearing into racism in the advertising industry on Monday that advertisers fail to show the divisions in the country. 

He testified on the party’s role in the 2020 protest action against the health and beauty retailer Clicks following a racist hair campaign.

Ndlozi says although South Africa is a racially divided society, advertisers constantly attempt to mask the truth.

“There have to be consequences, our view is to move our country beyond workshops and empty forgiveness sermons. A punitive approach is now long overdue.

"A racist must be punished with the full might of the damage of his or her racism. The portrayal of black people in adverts continues to base black as poor, noisy and untidy. An advert for laundry washing powder for instance will show a white woman washing with a machine while a black woman is washing with hands,” he said.

He believes advertising industry continues to tarnish the image of blackness.

“Poverty and economic struggles are a black thing in South Africa's advert narrative. The image of blackness, you will hardly find whites in economic squallers, black males always get roles of criminals - you hardly will see an advert addressing crime use a white person as a perpetrator."

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