Johannesburg -
By Thursday night, the two opposing camps were clear: a team going by the hashtag #FriendsofChester and a team supporting Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr.
The camps were embroiled in a battle on Twitter after news broke that Hofmeyr took out an interdict against Conrad Koch, the ventriloquist behind popular puppet Chester Missing.
The interim order, granted at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, prohibits Koch from publishing defamatory threats and from threatening, harassing or slandering the singer.
It prohibits Koch from contacting Hofmeyr and also blocks him from tagging him on social media websites like Twitter or mentioning him in television and radio interviews.
But that hasn’t seemed to stop the puppet, who has launched a crusade against Hofmeyr. @Chestermissing tweeted: “It’s like we (sic) dealing with the racist version of Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter here: he who shall not be named,” taking a jab at Hofmeyr.”
@steve_hofmeyr hit back, tweeting: “Ironically the Magistrate never asked about racism. She took one look at Koch’s slander & threats and stamped the order. #whatelsematters.”
Then their camps came out in their defence.
@Sjomri tweeted: “Slander people and then hiding behind a puppet. What a doll.”
@FF786480bc9e494 tweeted: “Why does conradkoch sound so much like cockaroach?”
@Nonoshee tweeted: “@chestermissing You are truly awesome. Phansi (down) ngeracism (with racism) and apartheid lie phansi”.
@ComradeFatsoo tweeted: “Am loving @chestermissing and his twitter revolution right now! Viva comrade!”
@williemalherbe tweeted: “@joumasecomedy I wont support stand up anymore due to @chestermissing!!”
@Thembek tweeted: “Just followed @chestermissing - my only reason is that he is exposing companies that continue to sponsor racists. We have your back on this!”
Nelson Mandela’s former personal assistant Zelda la Grange tweeted: “You part take in slander when it doesn’t serve your agenda but you want to gag someone else @chestermissing plse rely on me as witness”.
Kay Sexwale tweeted: “Dear @steve_hofmeyr, you tweet racist tweets all the time - seemingly with pride. Why try to silence @)chestermissing for calling you out?”
Responding to a question about how someone takes a puppet to court, Koch tweeted from the Chester Missing account: “You need to be a dummy?”
Hofmeyr said Woolworths, SA Airways and e.tv were sponsoring him, and Koch tweeted: “Hey @WOOLWORTHS_SA,@flysaa and (at)etvSA is it true that you are sponsoring this racist apartheid denialist @steve_hofmeyr?”
The singer was recently at the centre of a Twitter war involving Pick n Pay and Land Rover over whether the businesses should sponsor an Afrikaans music festival at which Hofmeyr will perform.
And he recently had a sponsored bakkie withdrawn after he tweeted that in his opinion black people were the architects of apartheid.
The Star