Comedian and ventriloquist Conrad Koch continued to send tweets about Steve Hofmeyr this morning, despite the Afrikaans singer securing an interim protection order against him. “Haha. Stevo, I am gonna burn u for this one,” Koch tweeted, under the username of his puppet Chester Missing.
Haha. Stevo, I am gonna burn u for this one. RT @steve_hofmeyr The ANC created "white" by creating a new victim based on skin colour post 94 — Chester Missing (@chestermissing) November 6, 2014
He was referring to a recent tweet by Hofmeyr that said, “The ANC created ‘white’ by creating a new victim based on skin colour post 94”.
Hofmeyr secured a court order in the Randburg Magistrates’ Court yesterday against Koch to prevent his puppet from harassing the singer on Twitter.
The order prevents Koch from threatening, harassing, or making defamatory statements against Hofmeyr. He was also not allowed to tag him on social media websites like Twitter or mention him in television and radio interviews.
“My first court order against Conrad Koch [Chester Missing] succeeded and there are still four coming!” Hofmeyr wrote on Facebook yesterday.
Hofmeyr said that until Koch explained the “hate speech” in the Randburg Magistrates’ Court on November 27, the ventriloquist was not allowed to contact him, his sponsors or his business partners directly or indirectly, reported Beeld newspaper.
“He can prepare himself for the same legal action from my partners and other sponsors. Godspeel is vir gode, nie buiksprekers nie, ou padda. [Playing God is for gods, not ventriloquists, old toad],” Hofmeyr wrote.
Hofmeyr asked people to inform him if Koch was still mentioning him or his sponsors and said that would form a new case. Beeld reported today that Koch said he received a phone call about the court order but had not received the order.
He said it was “fundamentally” wrong to take legal action against a satirist. “It’s absolutely crazy. Steve spits racist bile. If he gets challenged, he acts supercilious,” Koch was quoted as saying.
“All I did was tweet. The price of his racism is coming back to him now.” Beeld reported that Koch said his tweets against Hofmeyr were not hate speech because he never said anything hateful about the singer or never told people to boycott his sponsors or the festival. This morning, Koch received support on Twitter from various people.
Former president 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, South African Airways and e.tv were still sponsoring him and Koch tweeted: “Hey @WOOLWORTHS_SA, @flysaa and @etvSA is it true that you are sponsoring this racist apartheid denialist @steve_hofmeyr as he says u r?”
Hey @WOOLWORTHS_SA, @flysaa and @etvSA is it true that you are sponsoring this racist apartheid denialist @steve_hofmeyr as he says u r? — Chester Missing (@chestermissing) November 6, 2014