Controversies over the recent H&M advert which has been considered racial is not over yet as South African protesters stormed H&M stores destroying clothes.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) protesters targeted six H&M stores in the Gauteng province, where South Africa’s economic hub of Johannesburg is located, tearing down shop displays and throwing clothes around. Police officers fired rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.
H&M earlier issued an apology concerning the criticized ad, which featured a black child modeling a sweatshirt with the slogan “coolest monkey in the jungle”, and said it had removed it from all its marketing.
But Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, spokesman for the ultra-left EFF, said that was too late.
“The time of apologies for racism are over; there must be consequences to anti-black racism, period!” Ndlozi wrote on Twitter, posting pictures of a vandalized H&M store and video footage of chanting EFF supporters.
H&M South Africa did not respond to a request for comment, but its local website carried an apology for the advertisement.
Police said they were monitoring the protests, but that they had made no arrests so far.