Zulu King has opted instead to honour actress and Oscar winner Charlize
Nearly eight months after trying to get comedian Trevor Noah to accept his nomination for an award, King Goodwill Zwelithini and his foundation Bayede have officially withdrawn the Daily Show presenter’s nomination.
This comes after Noah and his team failed to accept the nomination after numerous attempts by Zwelithini’s foundation to reach out to him and his team.
Instead, Sunday World has learnt that Noah will be replaced by Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron.
News a bout t he withdrawal of Noah’s award follows revelations by Sunday World that Noah had snubbed the Zulu Kingdom and his mother during his visit to South Africa.
Noah failed to respond to numerous e-mails sent to him and his team asking him to avail himself to accept a humanitarian award by the Zulu King during an event to be held later this year.
However, despite being in the country for a charity tennis match in Cape Town, playing alongside one of the world’s richest men – Bill Gates, and world tennis superstars Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer – Noah left the country without any response to the foundation.
Bayede Foundation CEO Rhana Naicker said it will release an official statement on its decision about Noah’s nomination.
“We have sent several e-mails to him and his team, but we still have not received a response from him indicating whether he was accepting or rejecting the award.
“We intend to issue an official statement in due course to communicate our decision on the maer,” she said.
Naicker also confirmed that the foundation had also informed international actress Theron, who is involved several charities in KwaZulu-Natal, about her nomination.
“The king and Charlize Theron have had a long-lasting relationship, especially since she started doing charity work in the KZN. We are just waiting for her to indicate if she will be able to collect the award in person or she will send someone else to do it,” said Naicker.
She said that the foundation had expected the same courtesy from Noah, whom it considers as one of its own, but she said it was disappointed to have received no response from him or his team about his nomination.
Those close to the monarch said the decision to dump Noah was taken after consultation with the king and queen by the foundation.
“They really wanted to honour him for his contribution in the communities in South Africa and for flying the South African flag and Zulu kingdom high internationally. But it was not meant to be,” said one of the officials.
Trevor Noah’s management and Charlize Theron’s foundation had not responded to questions at the time of going to print.
By Aubrey Mothombeni
mothombenia@sundayworld.co.za
