(Don't) touch me on my studio is a South African meme that developed out of an e.tv television interview, 7 April 2010, with André Visagie, former Secretary General of the far right group, the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), and political analyst, Lebohang Pheko. [1] [2] The two were discussing race relations in South Africa in the aftermath of AWB leader Eugène Terre'Blanche's murder. Pheko confronted Visagie about the alleged abuse of farm workers in South Africa, and the anchor of the show, Chris Maroleng, had to intervene when Visagie lost his temper, ripping off his microphone and storming off the set before returning and saying: "You won't dare interrupting me ... I am not finished with you [ sic ]."
Maroleng's repeated statement to Visagie, "(Don't) touch me on my studio, (don't) touch me on my studio [ sic ]," and the AWB member's adamant response, "I'll touch you on your studio", [3] became a focus of jokes on Twitter, email, Facebook, forums [4] and video remixes on YouTube. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] The Broadcasting Complaints Commission received 19 complaints about Maroleng's handling of the issue [10] but these complaints were rejected. [11]
Antjie Krog, South African poet and academic, has expressed misgivings about the meme: "an Afrikaner and a black man's inability to use correct English has become the laughing stock of the country". [12] [13]
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid. Authorised by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Desmond Tutu, the commission invited witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations to give statements about their experiences, and selected some for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution.
Abraham Louis Fischer was a South African Communist lawyer of Afrikaner descent with partial Anglo-African ancestry from his paternal grandmother, notable for anti-apartheid activism and for the legal defence of anti-apartheid figures, including Nelson Mandela, at the Rivonia Trial. Following the trial, he was himself put on trial accused of furthering communism. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and diagnosed with cancer while in prison. The South African Prisons Act was extended to include his brother's house in Bloemfontein where he died two months later.
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, commonly known by its abbreviation AWB, is an Afrikaner nationalist, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi political party in South Africa. Since its founding in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and six other far-right Afrikaners, it has been dedicated to secessionist Afrikaner nationalism and the creation of an independent Boer-Afrikaner republic or "Volkstaat/Boerestaat" in part of South Africa. During bilateral negotiations to end apartheid in the early 1990s, the organisation terrorised and killed black South Africans.
Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche was an Afrikaner nationalist who founded and led the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging. Prior to founding the AWB, he served as a South African Police officer, was a farmer, and was an unsuccessful Herstigte Nasionale Party candidate for local office in the Transvaal. He was a major figure in the right-wing backlash against the collapse of apartheid. His beliefs and philosophy have continued to be influential amongst white supremacists in South Africa and across the world.
Antjie Krog is a South African writer and academic, best known for her Afrikaans poetry, her reporting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and her 1998 book Country of My Skull. In 2004, she joined the Arts faculty of the University of the Western Cape as Extraordinary Professor.
Country of My Skull is a 1998 nonfiction book by Antjie Krog about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It is based on Krog's experience as a radio reporter, covering the Commission from 1996 to 1998 for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The book explores the successes and failures of the Commission, the effects of the proceedings on her personally, and the possibility of genuine reconciliation in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Mark Behr was a Tanzanian-born writer who grew up in South Africa. He was professor of English literature and creative writing at Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee. He also taught in the MA program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In My Country is a 2004 drama film directed by John Boorman, and starring Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche. It is centred around the story of Afrikaner poet Anna Malan (Binoche) and an American journalist, Langston Whitfield (Jackson), sent to South Africa to report about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
Kay Elizabeth Burley is an English broadcaster. She is a presenter on Sky News and hosts Kay Burley, the breakfast slot on the channel. She has also worked for BBC Local Radio, Tyne Tees Television, and TV-am.
The 1994 Bophuthatswana crisis was a major political crisis which began after Lucas Mangope, the president of Bophuthatswana, a nominally independent South African bantustan created under apartheid, attempted to crush widespread labour unrest and popular demonstrations demanding the incorporation of the territory into South Africa pending non-racial elections later that year. Violent protests immediately broke out following President Mangope's announcement on 7 March that Bophuthatswana would boycott the South African general elections. This was escalated by the arrival of right-wing Afrikaner militias seeking to preserve the Mangope government. The predominantly black Bophuthatswana Defence Force and police refused to cooperate with the white extremists and mutinied, then forced the Afrikaner militias to leave Bophuthatswana. The South African military entered Bophuthatswana and restored order on 12 March.
The Hertzog Prize is an annual award given to Afrikaans writers by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, formerly the South African Academy for Language, Literature and Arts. It is the most prestigious prize in Afrikaans literature.
Afrikaans literature is literature written in Afrikaans. Afrikaans is the daughter language of 17th-century Dutch and is spoken by the majority of people in the Western Cape of South Africa and among Afrikaners and Coloured South Africans in other parts of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini. Afrikaans was historically one of the two official languages of South Africa, the other being English, but it currently shares the status of an "official language" with ten other languages.
Symfonia was a short-lived symphonic power metal supergroup formed in 2010 by Andre Matos (vocals), Timo Tolkki (guitars), Jari Kainulainen (bass), Mikko Härkin (keyboards) and Uli Kusch (drums). On February 18, 2011, the band made its debut performance at Finnish Metal Expo. The band released its only album, In Paradisum, in March 2011.
Melanie Verwoerd is a South African and Irish political analyst and diplomat. She was previously a politician, ambassador, and the director of UNICEF Ireland.
Visagie is an Afrikaans surname of Belgian origin.
Agápē is the second mixtape by American pop-R&B singer JoJo. It is of EP length, unlike the previous mixtape. The mixtape was announced in early November 2012. JoJo recorded material specifically intended for the mixtape as she did not want to keep her fans waiting for new music any longer. Released on her 22nd birthday on December 20, 2012, it marked the follow-up to her 2010 mixtape Can't Take That Away from Me, which spawned the single and video for "In the Dark". The mixtape's first single "We Get By" was released for free online on November 15, 2012 on JoJo's official SoundCloud with a limited number of downloads, with JoJo stating that "there's a limit on the download because we want you to download the entire mixtape once it's released". She recorded the song with a group of her friends known as The Backpackkids who all got together to create what they call "genre-less music".
Ronelda Kamfer is a Kaaps-language South African poet and novelist.
Steyn von Rönge is a South African farmer and the incumbent president of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB). He was born to George Napier van Ryneveld and Elsie Catharina. He is married to Cornelia. von Rönge was the deputy leader of the AWB who took over the reins after Eugene Terre'Blanche, the founding president, was murdered 3 April 2010. He had previously acted as leader of the AWB when Terre'Blanche was in prison.
Claudette Schreuders is a South African sculptor and painter operating out of Cape Town, South Africa. She is known mainly for her carved and painted wooden figures, which have been exhibited independently and internationally in galleries and museums. She is the first South African artist to have a sculpture acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Schreuders has been a finalist for both the Daimler Chrysler Award and the FNB Vita Art Prize, which is South Africa's version of the Turner Prize.
Harold (Harry) Kalmer was a South African novelist, essayist and playwright both in English and his home language Afrikaans.