Newsreader fired after using F-word 13 times live on Radio 702

Eyewitness News (EWN) fired newsreader Mark Esterhuysen on Tuesday after he swore 13 times and promoted his blog, Twitter and Facebook feeds during a news bulletin. Esterhuysen used the word “f**k” repeatedly in the 1am broadcast. EWN editor Katy Katopodis said he had been summarily dismissed. Although she had been unable to reach Esterhuysen by phone, a letter of dismissal had been delivered to his house.

Mark Esterhuysen

“We can’t tolerate that kind of behaviour. I don’t think it’s appropriate to use our platform, which is credible, to promote your own agenda,” she said. A 41-second clip, purportedly of the broadcast, on the website twitvid.com had garnered 35 000 views by Tuesday afternoon.


In it, a man who identifies himself as Mark Esterhuysen, says: “Fuck racism, f**k the pigs who killed Andries Tatane, f**k the AWB, f**k racism. We are all wild animals here, meant to live free. F**k capitalism, f**k fascism. F**k this fucking wage slavery shit. F**k domestication, f**k Julius Malema, f**k the state. F**k the petrol economic growth on a finite planet.”

Listen to the clip here  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuJFeCdGnWA
Esterhuysen tweeted that he had “no regrets about my bulletin”. On his Twitter feed, he identified himself as an enemy of the state, a defender of anarchy, a proud member of the primate clan, a cunning linguist, and a master debater. “Just like Jerry Maguire, I have lost the ability to bullshit. I’ll accept the consequences of it,” he tweeted on Monday. He said all he wanted in life “is for @GarethCliff to read my blog”. His most recent blog on markesterhuysen.blogspot.com was on the role of sport in modern South Africa, from an anarchist perspective.