South African music executive and podcast host Nota Baloyi has opened up about the fear and reputational damage he experienced after the United States revoked his visa following a social media post about Charlie Kirk.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Baloyi, whose full name is Nhlamulo Baloyi, clarified that his tweet about Kirk was neither insulting nor a celebration of his death.
“The reason why my visa was revoked was because of a cited Charlie Kirk post. One of my tweets, which was neither insulting nor demeaning about his death or the circumstances surrounding it, was cited as an offending tweet,” he explained.
Following the revocation, Baloyi said he deleted the tweet out of concern for his personal safety.
“I felt surprised, perturbed that that was the reason why, but also, I was very concerned for my safety, and thus, I quickly moved to delete the quoted tweet. It was out of fear for the attacks that I pre-empted, or you know, saw coming. And in my apology, I did say that if there are those who feel my tweet was insensitive or ill-timed, I do unconditionally apologise. Other than that, it was neither offensive, insulting, nor mocking his death,” he added.
Baloyi also spoke about the impact the incident has had on his reputation.
“I have been cited as someone who has made a mockery of a death, which is something that I would not do. And the reputational damage that they’ve done will hamper, you know, my future career prospects as I do depend on having a good reputation in the entertainment business,” he said.
The incident came on Tuesday, 13 October 2025, which would have been Charlie Kirk’s birthday, when the Trump administration reportedly revoked visas of at least six individuals over comments made about the right-wing influencer’s death.