Trustco 'apology' blasted
Hundreds of people are demanding Trustco's Quinton van Rooyen make a second attempt to apologise for a recruitment advert widely condemned as sexist, discriminatory, harmful and transphobic, while dismissing his Friday apology as a public relations stunt.
An open letter released yesterday, and supported by nearly 400 petitioners who are supporting an online petition for Trustco to apologise for the ad and provide transformative gender training for its management, accused Van Rooyen's public statement of being a “campaign video of yourself [and not] an apology”.
The open letter was in response to a lengthy statement Van Rooyen made online on Friday, labelled as a personal apology, in which he however failed to directly address the ad, or apologise for its content.
The open letter issued yesterday argued the Trustco advert was unconstitutional and “an obstacle to healing a country plagued by gender-based violence, globally-high rape statistics, and systematic inequality. A forthright acknowledgement of this from your company would be a considerate and responsible approach.”
Further, that Trustco should acknowledge their “harmful bigotry”, accusing the JSE-listed company of “directly contributing to the social issues you are so concerned about in your 'apology'”.
The open letter further stated that “if a Namibian captain of industry gets away with publicly speaking like that from a position of power, how can we expect men and women in this country to stand up and view abuse and violence as unacceptable?”
The ad, published a little over a week ago, and quickly removed by Facebook for copyright or community standard violations (Trustco has yet to confirm Facebook's decision to remove the ad), unleashed local and international widespread criticism and outrage.
A member of the public wrote that despite Trustco's attempts to smear the backlash against the ad, as voiced by a minority, this was not the case.
“This is not a small, oversensitive, whinging minority complaining or not getting a 'joke', this is about articulate, progressive Namibians having the courage to call out unacceptable behaviour.
“This is the future. Trustco would do well to dialogue with these bright young Namibians and to prioritise gender training for (its) board, management and staff.”
In the last seven days, Trustco's share price dropped by 2.23% to N$8.85 per share on the NSX.
JANA-MARI SMITH
An open letter released yesterday, and supported by nearly 400 petitioners who are supporting an online petition for Trustco to apologise for the ad and provide transformative gender training for its management, accused Van Rooyen's public statement of being a “campaign video of yourself [and not] an apology”.
The open letter was in response to a lengthy statement Van Rooyen made online on Friday, labelled as a personal apology, in which he however failed to directly address the ad, or apologise for its content.
The open letter issued yesterday argued the Trustco advert was unconstitutional and “an obstacle to healing a country plagued by gender-based violence, globally-high rape statistics, and systematic inequality. A forthright acknowledgement of this from your company would be a considerate and responsible approach.”
Further, that Trustco should acknowledge their “harmful bigotry”, accusing the JSE-listed company of “directly contributing to the social issues you are so concerned about in your 'apology'”.
The open letter further stated that “if a Namibian captain of industry gets away with publicly speaking like that from a position of power, how can we expect men and women in this country to stand up and view abuse and violence as unacceptable?”
The ad, published a little over a week ago, and quickly removed by Facebook for copyright or community standard violations (Trustco has yet to confirm Facebook's decision to remove the ad), unleashed local and international widespread criticism and outrage.
A member of the public wrote that despite Trustco's attempts to smear the backlash against the ad, as voiced by a minority, this was not the case.
“This is not a small, oversensitive, whinging minority complaining or not getting a 'joke', this is about articulate, progressive Namibians having the courage to call out unacceptable behaviour.
“This is the future. Trustco would do well to dialogue with these bright young Namibians and to prioritise gender training for (its) board, management and staff.”
In the last seven days, Trustco's share price dropped by 2.23% to N$8.85 per share on the NSX.
JANA-MARI SMITH
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