A casual trip to a Pretoria mall on Wednesday turned into a nightmare when Ndebele activist and author Thando Mahlangu was allegedly hounded out of the shopping complex by a man who described himself as the mall owner.
His sin, apparently, was that he went into the Boulders
Mall wearing a Ndebele traditional attire. The incident was captured by his
girlfriend and business partner Nqobile Masuku on cellphone.
In the video clip, the man tells Mahlangu that there was a
right of admission and that he doesn't condone Mahlangu's outfit and he was
must leave.
The man continues to tell Mahlangu that the mall was a
public place and he was dressed indecently, while Mahlangu defends himself that
he was wearing an African attire. "You are telling me I'm not supposed to
wear African [clothes] in Africa," Mahlangu told the man.
"I'm saying this is a public place... I'm not allowing
that here, this is my mall... right of admission is reserved," the man
told Mahlangu.
Mahlangu's girlfriend could be heard telling the man that
"this is Africa then you can't tell someone what to do, what to wear at
which mall."
In an interview with SowetanLIVE, Mahlangu said he and
Masuku went to the mall to shop for toiletries and have lunch when the incident
happened. "When we entered the mall we noticed a security guard staring at
us.
"As soon as we walked into a Clicks store, the guard
came to us and told me that I was not welcomed at the mall because I was
harassing customers with my attire," Mahlangu said
"The guard told me I was merely wearing an underwear
and this was chasing away customers, and due to this I was not allowed to buy
at the mall. I refused to leave and I told the security guard to call the
person who instructed him that he must tell me to leave the mall.
"About two minutes later, the man who identified
himself as the owner of the mall arrived. He started telling me to get out of
the mall, but still I refused. We had exchanged words with the mall owner which
resulted in him ordering the security to use his walkie talkie to call for
reinforcement of three more guards."
He said when the guards arrived he started retreating as he
realised they were going to overpower him.
"My partner and I hurriedly bought half of the items
we were looking for. I am grateful that Clicks store did allow us to buy the
items. However, I am disappointed that my girlfriend and I didn't have lunch at
the mall, especially because we were hungry, due to the harassment,"
Mahlangu said.
"I left the mall heartbroken and even now as we speak,
I'm still not fine emotionally." The centre management in a media
statement: "The Boulders Shopping Centre would like to apologise
unreservedly for the incident that took place at Clicks.
"The ventre would like to clarify that it does not
deny entry based on appearances and clothes. It is unfortunate that the
incident that occurred inside Clicks is being viewed as intolerant towards
other cultures and clothes.
Saddest reality in Africa, I was subjected to inside the @Clicks_SA store at The Boulders Shopping Center. By the center manager, who said it was his shopping complex. I was told that I'm wearing inappropriate I must go & Omega risk solutions harassed me #NdebeleTwitter pic.twitter.com/klzmTQspJO
— #WeNeedAmaNdebeleOnTV (@thandomahlangu_) March 24, 2021
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