By Umamah Bakharia

The South African Human Rights Commission has heard that more punitive measures should be implemented to deal with racism in the Advertising industry.

The Commission on Monday kicked off an inquiry into multiple forms of discrimination in the country’s ad industry. The EFF’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi told the Commission that the industry should be fined R50-billion for racism.

Speaking to Radio Islam, the Commission’s Gushwell Brooks says the issue of racism in ads came to light after H&M and Clicks were involved in racist advertising.

“The commission took it upon themselves to initiate this process to look specifically to look at some of the practices that we see in the advertising space instead of dealing with one-off situations,” says Brooks.

He adds that the commission is looking at the case in a holistic way to tackle racism in advertising.

They are busy understanding the advertising laws and norms.

“As the South African Human Rights Commission, its for the purpose of social cohesion within South Africa is to ensure that when we represent people in the media despite their race [and] background that we do this in a sensitive, knowledgable manner, that we do not insult people in the process and perpetuate certain racist [marks],” says Brooks.

Besides the EFF, the commission will be hearing testimonies from civil society organisations, marking associations in South Africa, an advertising firm and the freedom of expression institute.

The process of interviews will end this week, which will be followed by a report based on the findings.