Cell C boss distraught over his ‘b*tch’ comment
Cell C chief executive José dos Santos has again apologised for his sexist remarks about women and says he has respect for his “beautiful” employees.
|||Johannesburg - Cell C chief executive José dos Santos has apologised for his sexist remarks about women, after a turbulent week in which Twitter users called for his resignation.
And even though the female management of his company came out in his support on Wednesday, he wanted to clear the air and apologise again.
In an interview with The Star on Thursday, the besieged Dos Santos said: “It was really when I came back after the interview that I reflected on some of the things that I said, that I realised that I had used words that are totally unacceptable in a modern world and should not be used. I felt very distraught and I want to issue an apology to the people I’ve offended.”
It all started on Monday when Dos Santos, who was appearing on CliffCentral’s Leadership Platform, spoke about women in the workplace.
He said: “If I can use the term on your radio station, you know women do have a b*tch switch, and boy, if you see two women fighting it is worse than two men.”
In the interview, he spoke about how Cell C sponsors the Miss South Africa pageant and how it offers all Miss SA finalists an internship for a year at the company.
“It brought a whole different atmosphere. Can you imagine you got 12 gorgeous women and you say four or five of them walk into your company - do you know what it does to the atmosphere in that company? The men dress better, they shave every morning,” he said.
On Thursday, however, he said he felt disheartened to see what he had created. “I think that when you sit in a leadership room, and you have three or four men around you... and it’s an hour interview... you sort of tend to drop your guard. And, I don’t know how to put this... but you have this male talk. I was just trying to explain that women should be more supportive of each other,” he said.
On Wednesday, in a statement, senior women at Cell C said: “Too often people stand by and allow things to happen to good people; and while we know we might face some criticism for our decision to stand beside our chief executive, we as women in leadership positions at Cell C cannot allow someone to be solely judged for one unfortunate comment.
“What he has done to empower women, both within and outside the company, goes unnoticed.”
On Thursday, Dos Santos said he sees all his employees as beautiful and has respect for them.
lerato.mbangeni@inl.co.za
The Star