Retailers News South Africa

Clicks non-executive director Nonkululeko Gobodo resigns

Nonkululeko Gobodo has resigned as Clicks Group's non-executive director, effective from Monday, 14 September 2020. Clicks said her resignation was due to "personal reasons".
Nonkululeko Gobodo
Nonkululeko Gobodo

"We would like to thank Nonku for her valuable insights and contribution to the board and to the audit and risk committee over the past three years, and wish her every success in her present and future undertakings," said Clicks chairman David Nurek.

Gobodo’s resignation comes a week after Clicks came under fire for a racially offensive TRESemmé advert that was published on the retailer's website. Gobodo said that she had raised a red flag with Clicks management a few months ago over the way it was communicating with black customers. However, she said that Clicks alone shouldn’t take the fall for the advert as the retailer merely published the content that TRESemmé had created.

Gobodo confirmed today that she was not pushed from the Clicks board, but she could not stay on because she wanted to be free to pursue her other initiatives.

“The events of the past few days came to a place of being in direct conflict with an initiative that I’ve started called Awakened around racism and prejudice against women. It’s something that I’m passionate about,” Gobodo said.

She added, “I want to be free to pursue my initiatives. I don’t want to limit what I say because I’m afraid of the impact on Clicks. Clicks must go through their journey of repairing the damage and I want to go on my journey of putting firmly on the table and the agenda of the country the issue of racism and prejudice against women."

“What happened last week was very sad [and] it affected me personally. As a black woman, I felt disrespected by that advert and it is something that I cannot deny how deeply it affected me,” she said.

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