Introduction: ‘Don't touch me on my studio’

On 6 April 2011, South African television audiences watched an unscripted flare-up between e.tv anchor Chris Maroleng, Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) Secretary General Andre Visagie, and political analyst Lebohang Pheko during a live current affairs programme on race relations in South Africa, following the brutal murder of outspoken right-wing AWB leader Eugene Terreblanche. Terreblanche – a familiar figure in South African politics with strong views on race – was allegedly bludgeoned to death by his black farm workers. What stood out about the episode was not that Visagie and Maroleng almost came to blows on live television; nor that Visagie walked off the set in anger as the cameras rolled and the nation watched. The incident was unique in terms of the subsequent humour the South African public inscribed into Maroleng's agitated statement to Visagie: ‘Don't touch me on my studio!’ to which Visagie repeatedly shouted: ‘I will touch you on your studio!’ The grammatical error in the preposition ‘on’ had the country in stitches, with spoofs of the incident mushrooming across social media networks.