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Under fire Sir Richard Branson apologises for diversity gaffe in SA photo

November 13th, 2019 1 min read

Virgin Group founder and business magnate Sir Richard Branson has apologised after posting a photograph from a launch event in South Africa that only included white people.

The tycoon, who later deleted the photo, acknowledged the image used to accompany a tweet, “clearly lacked diversity”.

The Virgin Group boss, who operates a tented safari camp in the heart of Maasai Mara game reserve named Mahali Mzuri ‘a beautiful place’, had faced criticism over the picture he used to mark the launch of the new Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship.

In the original tweet, Sir Richard said: “Wonderful to be in South Africa to help launch the new Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship. We aim to become the heart of entrepreneurship for Southern Africa.”


Later, the honorary Maasai elder shared images that included a more diverse range of people.


Following the criticism, Mr Branson wrote: “The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship is for all South Africans, but yesterday’s choice of a photo to go with my tweet clearly lacked diversity. Apologies.”