Former ‘Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah is reported to have been commissioned for a new advertisement to promote South Africa as a tourist destination that will see him roughly earn R6.6 million per minute.
The video is expected to be five minutes long. This revelation was made public earlier in the week after concerns were raised in parliament about overspending across various programmes.
In a media statement issued to the public, it was revealed that Chairperson of The Portfolio Committee on Tourism, Tandi Mahambehlala, had asked Minister Patricia de Lille about the issue of Trevor Noah’s promotional video advert.
While the Minister insisted that the R33 million would not be coming from taxpayers' pockets and was instead a contribution from the Tourism Business Council of Southern Africa, Mahambehlala pushed back on the matter and called on the entity to stop the project before warning that TBCSA funds should not be used as “a slush fund to commit financial maleficence”.
This issue was reportedly first brought to the committee’s attention by a whistleblower.
De Lille pushed, saying: “Anything that a whistleblower says must be looked at further or investigated. In this instance, I can tell you that the whistleblower did not give you the full story.”
@chrisexcel102 led the public outcry on X (formerly Twitter): “Trevor Noah has done nothing for this country. He even kept quiet when the whole world was lying about South Africa.. Now they’re thanking him with R33 million of our tax money.. 😭😭😭”
Trevor Noah has done nothing for this country
He even kept quiet when the whole world was lying about South Africa..
Now they’re thanking him with R33 million of our tax money.. 😭😭😭
Comedian @rorypetzer joked: “Why are we paying Trevor Noah to tell people to come to South Africa? There's already not enough electricity to go around and now we want more phones to charge? 😭😭😭😭😭”
Why are we paying Trevor Noah to tell people to come to South Africa? There's already not enough electricity to go around and now we want more phones to charge? 😭😭😭😭😭
— Rory Petzer (@RoryPetzer) September 8, 2023
“Trevor Noah, lmao this country is a joke,” added @tamoneymayne. “That 33 million can build blocks of flags (sic) that can house 100-200 homeless people. That 33 million could build a school. Where is this money coming from?”
The world renowned comedian is currently in the country as part of a 12-show South African tour that includes a couple of shows in Durban and Pretoria over the next week. He recently completed the Cape Town leg of the tour.