Trevor Noah is confirmed to host the Festival and Dave Chappelle and Nomzamo Mbatha will join the lineup of co-hosts including Naomi Campbell, Sir Bob Geldof, Gayle King, Bonang Matheba, Tyler Perry, and Forest Whitaker.
Oprah Winfrey will deliver a special keynote address remembering Nelson Mandela and his legacy.
Multi-Grammy award winner Kacey Musgraves will perform at the Festival alongside headliners Beyoncé & JAY-Z, Cassper Nyovest, D’banj, Ed Sheeran, Eddie Vedder, Femi Kuti, Pharrell Williams & Chris Martin, Sho Madjozi, Tiwa Savage, Usher, and Wizkid.
K Naomi, Lucas Radebe, Nandi Madida, Pearl Thusi, Somizi, and Zakes Bantwini will also join as Global Citizen: Mandela 100 Advocates to support the campaign against extreme poverty.
“It is an honour to be a part of the Global Citizen Festival event celebrating the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela,” said Trevor Noah. “I am where I am today living as a free South African because of much of what he did and so I’m beyond excited to be teaming up with so many others to pay tribute to the man in his home country.”
“South Africa has made unbelievable strides since the end of apartheid in 1994, yet it is still beset by economic trouble: more than half of the country’s youth population is unemployed and more than a quarter of South Africans still live in extreme poverty. With the Global Citizen Skills Program, we are committed to building economic and leadership opportunities for generations of South Africans to come. December 2nd isn’t the end of Global Citizen’s journey in South Africa, it is the beginning.” – Kweku Mandela, executive producer, Mandela 100
“Johannesburg is the country’s fastest-growing metropolitan area and it is expected to become a megacity – with a population in excess of 10 million people – within the next 15 years,” said Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba. “In a city of this size, it is essential that residents and the administration work together to maintain the urban environment. That is why we started A Re Sebetseng– to encourage residents to be part of creating the kind of city that everyone would like to live in.”
In conjunction with the Festival, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, which is seen in over 110 countries, will produce a special episode featuring highlights from the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 event. The episode will have its premiere in the United States on Monday, December 3 at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Today’s announcement kicks off Action Journey 1, the first opportunity for fans and activists to earn their tickets to the event. Actions include:
- Asking Nigeria’s State Governors to invest in water and sanitation
- Urge Zambia to help children live free from hunger and malnutrition
- Call on the Finance Ministers of Ghana, Tanzania, and Kenya to lift millions from poverty by raising the agriculture budget
- Ask Rwanda to help end neglected tropical diseases and improve nutrition across Africa
Additionally, Global Citizen is partnering with the City of Johannesburg, with the support of Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba, on a city-wide cleanup campaign to improve the environment, cut plastic use, and promote a healthy lifestyle. Launching on 15 September, Johannesburg residents will be encouraged to participate in three cleanup sessions, one a month starting from September to November, for the chance to win free tickets to the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100.
Global Citizen is supporting youth skills development, through a number of local efforts as part of the commitment to build skill and leadership opportunities in South Africa. The organisation launched the Global Citizen Fellowship Program, offering year-long paid fellowships to young South Africans to gain valuable work experience across four key areas of the Global Citizen model: content, campaigns, marketing, and events. Additionally, Global Citizen is partnering with Tshepo 1 Million powered by Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a youth skills empowerment initiative by the Gauteng Provincial Government, to source, train, and manage 75 young, unemployed volunteers for the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100.
House of Mandela has entered into a formal partnership with Global Citizen in 2018 to be part of the official program honouring the life and times of Nelson Mandela and support their work to carry on his legacy of ending extreme poverty. Nelson Mandela famously called for this generation to realise an end to extreme poverty in one of his last public speeches, and Global Citizen has campaigned on this message with activist-driven events in Vancouver, London, Brussels, and at the upcoming 2018 Global Citizen Festival to be held in New York’s Central Park on 29 September.
Global Citizen’s Mandela 100 Festival is presented by major partner the Motsepe Foundation with support from major partners Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Nedbank, Vodacom, Coca Cola, Big Concerts, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Eldridge Industries, with associate partners from HP and Microsoft.
Since the first Global Citizen Festival in New York in 2012, Global Citizen has grown into one of the largest, most visible platforms for people around the world calling on world leaders to honour their responsibilities in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and ending extreme poverty by 2030.
Global Citizens have generated commitments and policy announcements from leaders valued at over $37.9 billion that are set to affect the lives of more than 2.25 billion people. This year alone Global Citizens have secured 29 commitments totaling over $2.9 billion that are set to affect the lives of more than 501 million people by 2030.
For more information on how to join the movement, please visit www.globalcitizen.org.za and follow @GlblCtzn on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, using #BeTheGeneration
