Journalist fired for expletive-filled radio tirade but gains Twitter followers

Mark Esterhuysen, a South African journalist, has been fired for an expletive-filled rant broadcast live on radio in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Following the rant, Esterhuysen directed listeners to his various social media platforms.

Esterhuysen was a journalist for radio news service Eyewitness News and his rant played out on Talk 702.

His twitter account, MarkEsterhuysen has now rocketed from roughly 400 followers to 979 and counting. His Facebook account remains silent on the matter, while he is yet to update on his firing from Eyewitness news on his blog.

Twitter was quick to respond to the news, commenting from both sides of the fence regarding his tirade.

Esterhuysen began his broadcast at 1am, introduced himself and then went on a forty-second long rant which targeted political figures in South Africa, including Julius Malema, the AWB, as well as more general concepts like racism and capitalism.

He ends his rant by saying “Peace, love, respect, anarchy. Follow me on Twitter. You can see me on Facebook as well.”

The clip is embedded below but be warned, it is absolutely crammed with strong language.

Esterhuysen himself tweeted that he had no regrets about the expletive filled rant.

Eyewitness news apologised for the rant, saying:

Eyewitness News and Talk Radio 702 apologise to our listeners for the comments made during what was supposed to be the news bulletin at 1am this morning. EWN does not condone what the news anchor Mark Esterhuysen said at this time instead of reading the news. Mark’s contract with EWN has been terminated with immediate effect and once again, we apologise to our listeners.