“What matters most to us is the safety of our employees and customers” and “we have temporarily closed our stores in South Africa.”H&M was last week forced to apologize for the image after it caused a social-media storm and prompted Canadian artist The Weeknd to end his collaboration with the Stockholm-based company. H&M, which said it agreed with those who were upset by the image, pulled the garment in question from its stores. Over the weekend, the company took further steps to reject all forms of racial slander.“We strongly believe that racism and bias in any shape or form, deliberate or accidental, are simply unacceptable,” H&M said. “We stress that our wonderful store staff had nothing to do with our poorly judged product and image.”Two H&M outlets, one in Johannesburg and one in Pretoria , were trashed in an anti-racism protest by the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party on Saturday, broadcaster eNCA reported, showing pictures of mannequins and clothes scattered on the floor. H&M said none of its staff or customers were injured in the protests and that it continues “to monitor the situation closely.” It will will re-open the stores “as soon as the situation is safe again,” it said.H&M was not immediately able to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News on Monday morning.

Source: Economic Times January 15, 2018 10:18 UTC