‘Government isn’t paying for it’: De Lille clears air about Trevor Noah’s R33m deal to promote SA

Tourism minister Patricia de Lille has cleared the air about comedian Trevor Noah potentially bagging a R33 million deal to promote South Africa in a five-minute advert. 

Noah was reportedly commissioned to promote his country as a tourist destination. This was revealed this week after concerns were raised in Parliament about overspending across various programmes.

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Speaking to The Citizen, De Lille reiterated the money spent to shoot the advert and to pay Noah was not government money. 

She did not confirm whether Noah would potentially bag R33 million from the venture. 

“Government is not paying for it. It is a private sector initiative,” said De Lille. 

The Tourism Business Council of Southern Africa (TBCSA) has since said it will fund the deal.

TBCSA in talks with US-based comedian

TBCSA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa confirmed to The Citizen that the company was in talks with Noah. 

“The Tourism Business Council of South Africa has been in talks with renowned comedian Trevor Noah and other personalities to collaborate with us on campaigns that will create a wider presence for destination South Africa to international markets. This is in line with the sector’s ambition to grow tourism arrivals in the country to 15.6 million over the next decade,” said Tshivhengwa. 

Aggressive marketing

Speaking at the TBCSA Leadership Conference on Thursday, De Lille said the sector must do more to aggressively market and promote South Africa.

“We held our first tourism marketing workshop in July, and we will be meeting again in October to refine our marketing strategy for the sector as a whole to address the fragmentation of marketing South Africa as a destination.

“We need to create one annual calendar of all major events across the country so that we can help tour companies create packages around these events. Let’s walk the talk together and work as partners to see this sector truly take its place as a key economic sector and job creator,” she said. 

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