Nando’s Cancels Its Partnership With Gareth Cliff’s Cliff Central
Nando’s Cancels Its Partnership With Gareth Cliff’s Cliff Central. Following the controversial discussion on The Burning Platform that Nando’s sponsored on Gareth Cliff’s Cliff Central, the fast food chain has now cancelled its partnership with Cliff Central over the comments Cliff made during his ‘The Burning Platform’ show.
Cliff described One South Africa Movement member Mudzuli Rakhivhane’s experiences of racism as “anecdotal” and “unimportant”. Nando’s has released a statement that addresses the reasons as to why they are terminating the sponsorship; they believe that Cliff did not create an environment where free speech was possible as he talked over Rakhivhane.
The statement said, “In the case of The Burning Platform episode Aired on 21st October 2021,Nando’s is of the view that Gareth Cliff failed to create an environment where free speech was possible by talking over Mudzuli Rakhivhane and dismissing her view whilst not allowing her to adequately express it. This is highly disappointing to Nando’s and at odds with the reasons that we originally entered into our sponsorship of The Burning Platform more than five years ago. We have made this known to Gareth Cliff and the Cliff Central team and have urged them to address this with their audiences as a matter of priority. As a result of Gareth’s actions on the 22st of October 2021, we have also made the decision to terminate our sponsorship of the Burning Platform with immediate effect.”
Gareth Cliff and Cliff Central have not released any a statement about the recent unfolding of events. Nando’s chooses to distance itself from the show because it feels Cliff did not handle the situation in an amicable manner. While others are arguing that Cliff’s behaviour was undermining the experience of a black woman, others are arguing that Gareth Cliff was simply practicing freedom of speech and that he has every right to express his own opinion.
