Earlier the week Pearl Thusi revealed on Twitter that she "was" a nominee in the Trendsetter of the Year category for the second South African of the Year Awards set to take place on 17 October and which will be broadcast live.
In the run-up to the glitzy awards show which last year boasted high quality production values, ANN7 is broadcasting a second season of I Am South African at 18:00 presented by Maps Maponyane and Avashnee Vandiar.
I Am South African as a TV show needs visual content, and profiles the various personalities and nominees in 83 episodes in the run-up to the awards show.
Pearl Thusi tweeted that "I was removed because I refused to have my friends and family motivate for a video insert" and called the process of allowing friends and family on camera "degrading".
While true it's not the whole truth: Pearl Thusi's management who represent her actually signed and confirmed beforehand the acceptance letter and agreed to the stipulations of being a nominee for the South African of the Year Awards.
The SATY's are a made-for-TV production, as is companion show I Am South African and ANN7 therefore needs people nominated to grant access to themselves and those pivotal to the actual reason they're nominated to appear on camera.
ANN7 tells TV with Thinus the TV news channel tried several times to get time to film with Pearl Thusi to package her special episode and inserts but that it proved impossible.
"Following several attempts by the SATY team to secure time with nominee Pearl Thusi in order to package her episode insert for the I Am South African show, the committee has resolved that in the interest of both parties we recall Pearl Thusi's nomination," Fungayi Kanyuchi tells me in response to a media enquiry.
"Pearl Thusi and her management has not been able to fascilitate the key requirements of being a nominee which are stipulated on the acceptance letter that was signed by her team on her behalf," says ANN7.
