Charlize had no permission to sell meeting with Mandela: foundation

Oct 28, 2009, 9:28 GMT

Johannesburg - Oscar-winning South African-born actress Charlize Theron did not receive permission to sell off a meeting with anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela at a charity function last week, it emerged on Wednesday.

A meeting with the former South African president was part of a 140,000-dollar package that the actress helped to auction off during a gala for the charity OneXOne in San Francisco.

The auction made international headlines after Theron upped the stakes by throwing in a 20-second kiss, which a woman bought for 140,000 dollars.

Bidding for the initial package of a trip to South Africa in 2010, including World Cup tickets, a safari and a meet-and-greet with Mandela, had stopped at 37,000 dollars before her intervention.

Reacting to the auction, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said Wednesday that Theron had not made any request for a meeting with the 91-year-old statesman.

'There is a very rigorous process that is followed to secure a meeting with Mr Mandela, and as yet, we have not have had any such request from Charlize Theron,' Achmat Dangor, chief executive of the Foundation said in a statement.

'It should also be noted that even the charities that he created have never auctioned off time with Mr Mandela,' Dangor said, while wishing Theron well with her charity work.

The case is the second controversy this month involving the use of Mandela's name by well-known figures for promotional purposes.

His foundation also took issue with a book by Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso, in which the foreword is attributed to Mandela.

The Mandela Foundation insists he never wrote the foreword, which praises Nguesso. The Republic of Congo has hit back, saying the foreword is based on an excerpt from a speech made by South Africa's first democratically-elected president 13 years ago.