What? What? Woollies!

Image: 2oceansvibe.com

I was quite taken yesterday when a fellow student mentioned that a Social media/PR crisis was taking place on Woolworth’s Facebook page, the problem at hand: Racism. A young man by the name of Justin Harrison posted on his blog over the weekend that Woolworths apparently does not open job vacancies to white people, which I must mention does not make sense (first version). Then there’s debate that the young lad saw a vacancy on a jobsite posted by Woolworths that stated that for that particular position only black, coloured and Indian candidates need apply (second and last version!). To summon matters Steve Hofmeyer posted on Twitter: “Gonna be hard, but goodbye Woollies.”

Having read and observed all these statements and claims, I couln't help conclude that although  social media has somehow given us a platform and most importantly ‘a voice’ to carry across our views and intellect, it has somehow provided a freeway of division amongst companies and the individuals they strive to satisfy through their products and services. And most importantly, it has the power to unite and divide as beings, as fellow South Africans. Hopefully we’ll collectively discover that eventually…. Simply Put.