FOREIGN and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers apologised for “offending anyone by shopping at Pennywise”.
Sobers was responding to a video he posted at the Pennywise megastore in La Romaine with a shopping cart and holding a mic. After he introduced himself as the Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, he began talking about the reasonably priced items.
The video went viral and has sparked public criticism.
Political analyst Dr Winford James told the Express on Wednesday he was troubled by the video, which raised a matter of ethics.
Speaking at the post-Cabinet news conference yesterday, Sobers said, “I will, I will be very honest with Trinidad and Tobago. I live very close to Pennywise in La Romaine. I shop there all the time.
“It was the end of the month, and we had to get shampoo and soap and all of those things. And at the end of the day, I’m not paid by Pennywise to do any endorsement. If you have a dry goods store or something like that, I will come and check it out if your price is good; I might buy as well.”
He said while he knows as a minister he should not engage in appearances like these, he maintains he is not endorsing Pennywise.
“I am informed, duly informed, that as a minister of Government, I should not do that. I apologise if I offended anyone for shopping…But I mean, at the end of the day, I’m not endorsing Pennywise when I was there shopping,” said Sobers.
He added this interaction shows the current administration is “approachable”.
“I go out in public on a number of occasions. I go to the same places that I’ve always been going, the same pharmacy, same meat shop, same grocery, same Pennywise. People will come up, they would want pictures, discussions on foreign issues, and this and that and the other, and all sorts of things. And we are approachable. I see nothing wrong in that,” said Sobers.
