POOR Steve Hofmeyr. It's true the singer has largely been the architect of his own misfortune, but just lately you've had to feel sorry for the guy. In a country absolutely brimful with thoughtless and unhinged bigots, he alone gets to be singled out as a racist idiot and humiliated by the media and - what's worse - a psycho showbiz dummy.
It all started with that awful tweet: "Sorry to offend but in my book blacks were the architects of apartheid. Go figure."
Go figure? Well, we certainly tried, here at the Mahogany Ridge, but we could only presume that Hofmeyr was having some sort of very public nervous breakdown, one that had been months, if not years in the making.
The fresh-faced entertainer who once melted the teenaged hearts of Afrikaans girls up and down the platteland with his anodyne drivel and pointless good looks and then gave them babies had long since vanished from the national stage.
In his place there emerged a goggle-eyed monster with a silly beard and even sillier opinions who, far from being apologetic about it, seemed to relish whatever outrage he caused and claimed he was merely enjoying his right to freedom of expression.
It was uncharacteristic of him to then take legal action against ventriloquist Conrad Koch in a bid to stop him bothering sponsors into cancelling lucrative contracts with the singer.