Enhle Mbali's apology for controversial 'k-word hare' comment ignites social media backlash

When Enhle Mbali, who was recently announced as the first celebrity ambassador for Carlton Hair, dropped the "k-word" during her speech at the launch event, she probably didn’t expect the intense backlash that followed.

A clip of her referring to her hair as “k*ffir hare” quickly went viral after being shared on social media.

This sparked a wave of criticism from South Africans who found her remarks deeply offensive.

Not long after the video went viral, Mbali shared a video apology addressing the controversy.

She took to Instagram, saying: “I am posting this video to express my heartfelt apology as a black South African woman, for offending members of the South African community during my speech, as that was far from my intention.”

“The K word as it’s formally known, is still a sticky one with lots of history behind it. I spoke in the language (terminology) that we commonly used where I grew up. We rendered the K word’s humiliation untrue, therefore it was never owned space,” she continued.

“My intention was not to dismiss or demean any community while sharing my personal experiences. With that being said, I fully understand this is not the case for everyone. Once again, my sincerest apology.”

In the video, she included pictures of herself with different hairstyles, as well as photos from her childhood.

While her apology appeared to be heartfelt, many followers felt it was not enough. Some have been unable to look past her use of the slur in the first place.

One person commented: “You’re not apologising. You’re not making any sense either. You know the reach and weight words have. Take a moment to reflect deeper on why that should have never been said by you.”

Another follower wrote: “You stood in front of people and disrespected every black person and people who died fighting for this mere freedom we are in and on top of that you laughed like it's funny. This is not an apology and you know it but you just don't care. Everyone that is agreeing with you has the same mentality as you and by the looks of it you have become too comfortable with your level of thinking being that low because you are liking all of their comments.”

“Lol this is not an apology, you only doing it because of the backlash you have received from that video. You literally stood in front of people and degraded colored and black women for what? Approval of white people?!” wrote another.

Along with her apology video, Mbali also posted an Instagram story, which has since disappeared. However, screenshots of it have circulated online.

In the story she wrote: “Good morning. Thank you all sooo much for your understanding. I appreciate it. I guess I assumed with how comfortable we use the N word, it would the same with the K word. (great mistake on my part) Thanks for understanding that it had no malicious intent.”

Lebo Lion, a popular South African culture commentator and brand strategist, responded on TikTok, saying: “The K word literally was created to have malicious intent. There’s no way you can strip away the history of that word and say that you did not have malicious intent. By virtue of using it, you’re subscribing to the idea that you were using it maliciously.”

Another TikToker, @Disebo, also weighed in, saying: “Sis, you’re 37 years old, you’re a millennial. We were supposed to be the ones who started the movement to get away from all of that rhetoric around seeing our hair as something negative. Now you’ve set us back a little because you made those remarks in front of an audience of a demographic of people who usually have negative things to say about our hair.”

In response to the controversy, Carlton Hair released a statement saying: “To address this, we have immediately paused all related promotional content featuring the ambassador and are conducting a full review of our partnership guidelines to ensure alignment with our inclusivity standards.”

They added: “Moving forward, we will prioritise collaborations with voices that authentically amplify empowerment and cultural pride.”

IOL Entertainment