Controversial radio personality Gareth Cliff and realtor Penny Sparrow have dominated South African social media in the past week, ROi Media has said.

In a statement, ROi Media, who generate news and social media statistics, said that the duo combined accounted for over 45% of the social conversation in seven days.

“Matric results and Protea conversation follow with just over 20%,” the statement said.

ROi Media said that South African news media was dominated by the matric results and Hashim Amla’s resignation, saying racism-related news was smaller than both these stories.

“Penny Sparrow comes in at just under 10% of the media reporting this week.”

Meanwhile internationally, Donald Trump, Star Wars and Syrian War account for almost 45% of the international news media this week.

KwaZulu-Natal realtor Penny Sparrow came under fire after she had taken to Facebook and described black beachgoers as “monkeys”, in an apparent reaction to litter left behind after New Year’s celebrations.

Cliff was roped into the fray after he posted on Twitter saying:

People really don’t understand free speech at all: https://t.co/97MWi6jrww
— Gareth Cliff (@GarethCliff) January 4, 2016

Cliff has since been fired as a judge from reality television show SA Idols. News24