Makro vs Magaliessig
The Situation:
It has come to the Magaliessig community’s attention that Makro has purchased a significant portion of land on Witkoppen Rd in Magaliessig and intends to develop this as another Makro Superstore outlet.
Notification was served on the Public on Wednesday 10th February 2010 and the community has 28 days from that date to register any objections.
Makro presented this to a forum of residents on the 9th Feb and the general reaction was one of complete and unanimous rejection to the proposal.
Those residents who attended the Makro presentation immediately caucused and a meeting was promptly scheduled for Thursday 11th Feb at which an action group was formed to oppose the Makro development.
saidWot monitored conversations online to see reactions by residents and Makro.
Our Online Audit revealed:
saidWot tracked mentions over a very short period of time during March 2010. Most mentions tracked came from websites, followed by social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
- 17 out of the 18 mentions received were negative.
- All mentions came from residents in the affected area
- All comments posted on residents’ forums online are of a negative nature and urge residents to mobilise to protest against this.
- Even credible sources such as Afrigator (blog aggregator site) have posted the article and linked back to the residents’ forums
- No response from Massmart or Makro in any mentions tracked
- No information can be found on the Makro and the Massmart website regarding the planned developments.
- No PR releases from Makro found online regarding the case
Although Makro made some efforts offline to talk to and engage with the residents they missed a clear opportunity that conversations in the online environment presented. If they monitored conversations they would have been able to focus on platforms where most of the current mentions come from and provide residents with more and relevant information that could have changed opinions.
