An offer of over €1.6 million made to Johannesburg-born comedian Trevor Noah to appear in a five-minute advertisement aimed at promoting tourism in South Africa has created controversy in the country in recent days.
The South African government, accused of throwing money down the drain in a gloomy economic and social context marked by endemic unemployment and growing inequality, denied on Friday that it was paying a single penny for the advertising campaign.
“Trevor Noah’s advertising for South Africa does not involve any public funds,” Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille stressed on X (formerly Twitter).
The former star host of the hit US show 'The Daily Show' is to be paid from the private funds of an organisation of tourism professionals, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, according to Ms de Lille.
The Council confirmed in a statement on Friday that the initiative would be “entirely financed” from its own funds.
The minister had been questioned earlier this week in Parliament “about Trevor Noah costing South Africans R33 million for a five-minute promotional video spot,” with some MPs vehemently opposed to such an outlay.
Many South Africans, taken aback by the fee, denounced in recent days what they described as the Department of Tourism’s "creative" ways of "plundering taxpayers’ money” especially since the continent’s leading industrial power has been hit for months by a power shortage that is crippling the economy.
The proposal to use Noah's image to encourage tourists to visit the Southern African country, following the Covid pandemic, is still under discussion with the comedian, who is currently on tour in South Africa.
