Chris McGreal
Malcolm Rifkind, leader of the Tories’ Scottish election campaign, chose to run around the old Zulu battlefields. David Frost wants to pursue elephants. Rory Bremner has yet to decide but he is probably one of those who wants to meet Nelson Mandela.
The three are among an array of British celebrities, politicians and writers being wooed by the South African government with free luxury holidays in the belief that they will become “ambassadors” for a country that considers itself unfairly blighted by negative press coverage.
Stephen Fry, Sir Trevor McDonald, Jamie Oliver (the Naked Chef), Rowan Atkinson and Michael Shea (the queen’s former press secretary) have all agreed to visit South Africa on tailor-made trips that range from a short stay in Robben Island prison to riding the ultra-expensive Blue Train. Many of them are also begging for a picture with Mandela.
The South African tourism board scheme is parallel to the government’s attempt to use a New Labour peer to spruce up British perceptions of President Thabo Mbeki’s administration ahead of his state visit to the United Kingdom next month.
Baroness Glenys Thornton, a committed Blairite and former general secretary of the Fabian society, has been helping to groom South African Cabinet ministers on trips to London by telling them what not to say to the press, particularly following the political debacle over alleged plots against Mbeki.
But the “VIP visitor” scheme is longer-term. The man behind attracting the readily available if not the cream of British celebrity is Dick Foxton, a Johannesburg-based consultant working with the South African tourist board. His recent acquisitions for the jaunt south include Jools Holland, Tim Rice and the London-based husband and wife team of the former United States State Department representatiave, James Ruben, and CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour.
“All we ask is that they come to South Africa and see and talk to their friends about it afterwards,” Foxton said. “These are people who can slip an article into a newspaper or get the message about South Africa out there in a way that lots of expensive advertising cannot.”
Among the few to have turned down the offer is Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher’s former representative, on the grounds that he no longer commands sufficient influence with the press.
Newspaper travel writers have also been invited, including The Guardian’s travel editor, Charles Burgess.
Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign secretary, is so far the only “VIP visitor” to make it to South Africa. He asked to see the battlefields where Zulu warriors confronted the British and to ride the Blue Train. He also went to Soweto.
Sir Malcolm persuaded The Scotsman to run an article that argues that South Africa’s myriad of problems should not discourage visitors. But his main account appeared in the Johannesburg Sunday Times, which might be seen as missing the target.
“Crime has deterred some tourists from visiting South Africa. Few in their right minds would wander around downtown Johannesburg,” he wrote. “There is a need to be careful, but it is still more fun to be in South Africa than Majorca.”
The South African tourism board’s marketing chief, Owen Leed, was delighted. “Sir Malcolm Rifkind was a great success. Here’s a man who is a potential future prime minister and he wrote a piece in The Scotsman that, compared to the cost of advertising, more than covered the cost of his trip.”
Next in line for South Africa is Sir David Frost, coming in July. “Sir David Frost is very keen for the wildlife experience,” Leed said. The lone black face in the line-up is the ITN newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald, who has a son living in Johannesburg. “Through him we will get more black people,” Leed said.
If the celebrities want to gauge their comparative worth, there is one test. Many have asked to meet Mandela. Not all will have their wish granted.
“We have to manage that very carefully. I can’t say yet who will get to see him,” Leed said.