Person living with Disability

To Woolworths Management

I would like to make a formal complaint and ask for clarity about how your disability policy works in your stores.

Yesterday, I was at the Woolworths Jabulani branch. I am a person who is physically challenged, and I use a wheelchair. When I arrived, I was told to stand and wait in the queue on the side where people collect chickens. There was no assistance or special consideration given to me because of my disability.

I want to know if your disability policy only applies in some places or if it is supposed to apply everywhere in the store. You cannot use the policy in some areas and ignore it in others. People with disabilities should be treated with respect and helped in all parts of the store.

The lady who was serving customers in that area was very rude to me. When I asked for help, she did not treat me with respect. I then spoke to the manager, hoping that she would assist me, but instead she also told me to go back to the queue because the chickens get finished quickly. This made me feel disrespected and ignored as a disabled person.

I am requesting the following:

Clarity on whether your disability policy applies in all Woolworths branches and in all sections of the store.

Confirmation that staff are trained to assist customers with disabilities.

Action to make sure that people with disabilities are not made to wait in long queues without assistance.

A response on how this complaint will be handled and what will be done about the rude behavior from both the staff member and the manager.

I hope you will take this matter seriously and respond to me as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely, SG Mtshali