• Clicks SA says EFF protest action is currently taking place at 37 of its stores across KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape.
• The retailer adds that seven of its stores were damaged.
• This after a TRESemmé hair advert sparked outrage.

Health and beauty retailer Clicks says protest action by the EFF is currently taking place at 37 of its stores across KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape.

The retailer said seven of its stores were damaged, including Saveways in Witbank and Cycad in Polokwane.

"Clicks strongly condemns violence of any kind or intimidation of staff and its customers. Clicks will take legal action against perpetrators and those seeking to incite violence or harm our people and our stores," it added in a statement on Monday.

This after the EFF shut down several stores on Monday following a hair advert that sparked outrage.

The political party issued out a directive to its "fighters and ground forces" on Sunday that Clicks South Africa should close its stores from Monday until Friday. 

The party's secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, further instructed "fighters" to head to their nearest Clicks and ensure the directive was implemented.

This after the party made a list of demands to the retailer to meet within 24 hours regarding a hair advert that included four women: two black and two white.

The advert described the hair of two black women as "dry and damaged" as well as "frizzy and dull", meanwhile the hair of the two white women was described as "fine and flat" and "normal".

The images on the retailer's website were used in a TRESemmé South Africa marketing campaign.

ROLLING COVERAGE | EFF members storm Clicks stores across the country

"The campaign set out to celebrate the beauty of all hair types and the range of solutions that TRESemmé offers, but we got it wrong. The images are not in line with the values of our brand, or of Clicks.

"TRESemmé South Africa apologises for the offence these images have caused. We also apologise to the Clicks group," Unilever South Africa said in a statement.

Unilever, a multinational consumer goods company, added it was looking into how this happened, why it was not picked up and would "take all necessary steps to make sure it doesn't happen again".