South Africans woke up to the sad news of the passing away of US actress Kim Porter on Friday morning. Porter, 47, was billed as one of the attractions for next week’s African Odyssey Fashion and Beauty Business Summit 2018.
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Founder Carol Bouwer, had secured her services to speak on a panel about how humanitarianism makes business sense. Porter was a long term partner of hip hop mogul Diddy (formerly known as Puff Daddy or Puffy) who is one of the sponsors of The African Odyssey.
Bouwer shared: ‘We at African Odyssey cannot fully express how devastating the passing of Ms Porter has been. It’s a difficult development as we haven’t just lost a speaker, but a sister and a true humanitarian. We carefully curate our speakers for our event and had identified Kim’s immense passion and hard work as a philanthropist as of great value to our attendants.
‘We were looking forward to hosting her in Johannesburg next week and learning from her journey, sadly it was not meant to be. We send our condolences to her family, especially her four children, Mr Combs, otherwise known as Diddy, friends and fans who supported her career.’
The African Odyssey has accordingly decided to dedicate this year’s edition in Porter’s honour and memory.