Five good reasons to boycott Woolworths

1. The "quota system" is being abused by the government. Ultimately their aim is not to create jobs themselves so that they can be accountable for election promises and so that they can drop the 49% unemployment rate in SA. They want to say that 99% of jobs are held by blacks - irrespective of if there are 300 jobs or 3 million. They are ruining education for black people while their children are sitting next to white children in private schools and the result is that the majority of black people will not improve their lot in life - so they will use job reservation to mollify and manipulate an illiterate population. This will never help black people.

2. They can sabotage coloured people to keep them disadvantaged in areas like the Cape because jobs in their areas will go to black people who do not live in their areas but who will come from Limpopo and other areas where the government is failing hopelessly to improve conditions. Conditions have worsened there in the last 20 years. These coloured folk do not have the buying power to fight big companies. We do - at this stage as a big chunk of Woolworths' demographic clientele is still white people. In this way they can also destabilise the Cape so that they can get a foothold there as up to now their attempts with political rhetoric have failed. We have all heard their racist remarks about coloured people and the fact that they feel that they are losing elections there because "the problem with the Cape is that there are too many coloureds there" - so they want to break down their community sense.


3. If large companies and institutions do not stand up for what is right, and do what is right then we are going backwards. They make money from us - they owe us!

4. We are all against the level of violence that injustices elicit in South African demonstrations as a rule (Marekana is the most recent example where 2 policemen and about 10 miners were brutally murdered by protesters). This is a chance for you, the peaceful South African citizen to stand up for what is right. Tell them what Archbishop Tutu was saying last week about the behaviour of our government and big business - "it might be legal but it is immoral". Vote with your feet through their door. You do not need a machete or an AK47 - this time.

5. Lastly the people that they are going to discriminate against are the ones that were not even born during apartheid (Read South Africa's Dirty Little Secret). And HOW CAN ONE GIVE YOUR MONEY TO A COMPANY THAT WILL NOT EMPLOY YOUR OWN CHILD, NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE INCAPABLE BUT BECAUSE OF THE COLOUR OF THEIR SKIN???? If a Woolworths product is more important to you than people - then, you need to grow a pair and ask Woolies to stock moral compasses in isle 5.

Black Economic Empowerment (BEE / Affirmative Action) has also been criticized for creating a brain drain, where the qualified white expertise is emigrating to countries where they would not be discriminated against. Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi is a strong critic of BEE and supports this view. He has stated that "the government's reckless implementation of the affirmative action policy is forcing many white people to leave the country in search of work, creating a skills shortage crisis".

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has warned that South Africa is sitting on a "powder keg" because millions are living in "dehumanising poverty" stating that Black Economic Empowerment only serves a black ANC elite few.