Who is Vernon Koekemoer?

He seems to be South Africa's answer to Chuck Norris.

He has become an overnight internet celebrity.

It first started when someone took this picture of dear Vernon:

Vernon was spotted at a local rave called H2O that is held quite frequently in Boksburg. Apparantly (and I didn't know this) Boksburg is the "clubbing capital of South Africa". You could have fooled me.

Anyhow, the photo made it's way on to the intertubes via the popular social networking site Facebook, where a group called "Make Vernon Koekemoer Famous" was promptly created.

The name "Vernon Koekemoer" was apparantly created by Bryan Theunissen, who is in the advertising and marketing industry. He received the above photograph from a friend, named the man in the picture "Vernon Koekemoer" and circulated the image as an experimental viral marketing test.

So who is Vernon really?

Well, it has been confirmed that his real name is Cassie Booyse and he is 51 years old. He's been hanging out at different raves and club events for quite a while and is actually quite a shy guy.

Now he has an agent, there are Facebook groups dedicated to Vernon, a website and night-club appearances for his adoring fans.

Cassie has embraced his alter-ego and is enjoying the limelight at age 51. His story has even been featured on Sky News!

For those of you who have DStv, you can check him tonight on channel 105, on the repeat show of Kwêla where he talks about his new found fame.

The schedules for the other shows are also available on the website.

So is this going to last? Who knows.

In my opinion I think Vernon should capitalise on this as much as possible. He's 51 years old. This could be his time to build that little nest egg for his old age.

Whenever that might be.