Blunder: Clarkson says he was nervous and 'acted like a fool' after upsetting the former South African president
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The BBC has been dragged into an embarrassing row involving Nelson Mandela after Jeremy Clarkson revealed that the former South African president had mistaken him for an astronaut.
Senior aides of the 91-year-old were so upset by the Top Gear presenter’s decision to publicise the misunderstanding that they threatened to reject £70,000 which Mr Clarkson raised for the Nelson Mandela Foundation at a charity auction.
The mix-up occurred when the two men were introduced at a reception in Johannesburg.
Mr Mandela had been due to meet a group of American astronauts on the same day and became confused about who Mr Clarkson was.
When he asked him what the Moon was like, the star of the hugely successful BBC2 car show could not bring himself to correct the legendary leader, so he replied: ‘It’s rocky and dusty and there’s not much gravity.’
A source who was at the reception said: ‘Mr Mandela’s people were extremely annoyed.’
Last night, Mr Clarkson declined to apologise but issued a statement via the BBC, saying: ‘I was incredibly nervous and acted like a fool.’
He and his co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May were in South Africa for a series of Top Gear Live shows and to raise money for good causes. A number of arena shows are presented each year in countries where the programme has a big following.
The confusion over Mr Clarkson’s identity might have remained a private matter had the ‘motormouth’ TV host not later recounted the story in a newspaper column.
Mr Mandela’s aides were so annoyed at what they claimed was a breach of confidentiality that they said they would refuse the money.
His personal assistant, Zelda le Grange, told Paul Edmonds, director of Brand Events, the promotions company that organises the Top Gear Live tours on behalf of the BBC: ‘We do not want your money.’
Mr Edmonds is understood to have told colleagues after the heated meeting with Ms le Grange that ‘it was one of those times when you shut up and take your medicine’.
Mr Clarkson wrote in his newspaper column after meeting the former president: ‘I should explain at this point that these days Mr Mandela spends a lot of his time meeting people who are passing through Johannesburg... And when you are sitting in an office all day, meeting an endless stream of
people you don’t know, it’s easy to get them a bit muddled up.’
Last night, the foundation tried to play down the row and indicated that it would, after all, accept the money. Spokesman Sello Hatang said: ‘We have not rejected the donation. We are in discussions at the moment about the process of receiving it. There is no bad blood between us and Mr Clarkson.’
Asked if the foundation would work with the same promotions company again, Mr Hatang said: ‘I am not sure what will happen in the future. We will cross that river when we get there.’
This is not the first time that Mr Clarkson has caused offence. He had to apologise last year after calling Gordon Brown ‘a one-eyed Scottish idiot’, while in 2005 he gave the Nazi salute on Top Gear while discussing a German-made Mini.
He has also accused TV bosses of being obsessed with having ‘black Muslim lesbians’ on shows to balance out white heterosexual men.
A BBC Worldwide spokesman said: ‘During downtime for the Top Gear Live tour in South Africa recently, Jeremy had a private meeting with Nelson Mandela. The newspaper columns that followed the meeting are not a matter for BBC Worldwide.
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