Woolies denies claim of discriminating against poor whites

Woolworths has emphatically denied a claim on social media that when it donates end-of-life food to charities, the recipients are barred from distributing it to poor whites.

The claim was made on X by Saxon African, known for its right-wing posts.

It alleged that “if you do charity with large companies like Woolworths, distributing end-of-life food to the homeless you have to sign a contract ensuring that it’s not given to white homeless people because of their BEE (black economic empowerment) regulations”.

Account ‘spreading misinformation’ – Woolworths

Woolworths SA said it appeared the account was “spreading misinformation with malicious intent”.

It added: “They have blocked us from responding to the tweet, but we can categorically state that the info is fake news. All of the info in the tweet is untrue.”

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Saxon African claimed the conditions that Forward SA applied to end-of-life food distribution, restricted distribution to NPOs (non-profit organisations).

“The criteria that restricts the distribution is BEE. I don’t believe that it should be just government officials getting sanctioned for this… larger corporates supporting such racist systems deserve sanctions, too,” Saxon African posted on X yesterday.

Musician and parody artist The Kiffness, aka David Scott, joined the chat and said Food Forward SA got its noddy badge after reaching almost 95% black homeless people last year.

The Kiffness joined the chat

“Creating quotas for the homeless is supertwisted. So, Woolworths has said the claim that end-of-life food isn’t given to white homeless people is fake news.

“But the affidavit from their main end-of-life food charity, Food Forward SA says the enterprise has more than 75% black beneficiaries in line with BEE regulations. So, it’s true, even if you’re homeless, you are discriminated against because of your skin colour,” he said.

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It seemed the affidavit by Food Forward SA was a post from 2017 and the updated certificate indicated that Food Forward SA beneficiaries were 94.91% black in September 2024.

Cradle of Hope shelter for abused women and children founder Melodie van Brakel said despite not being 100 % BEE they had never been denied a donation.

“It’s propaganda, we get to do a lot with big corporates as an NGO. Many times, we get letters asking us to confirm we help 100% black people,” she said.

‘It’s propaganda’ – Cradle of Hope

Van Brakel said it wasn’t right and added at the Cradle of Hope they don’t just help only black people; they help the destitute.

“Here at the Cradle of Hope we don’t see colour,” she said.

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Van Brakel said they did receive letters asking the shelter to confirm its BEE status.

“I usually reply and say that we as the Cradle of Hope help 78% of black people and we comply according to the BEE scorecard as a level one organisation.

“So, the BEE scorecard states that we comply as a level 1 BEE organisation if we help 75% or more black people.”

Letters to shelter to confirm BEE status

Van Brakel said usually the corporation was happy with her reply.

“We have never been denied a donation because we were not 100% BEE,” she said.

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