Pierre van Pletzen on Thursday abruptly dropped out of Comedy Central Africa (DStv 122) and Showmax's Comedy Central Roast of AKA as a panellist without a reason, hours before the show was recorded on Thursday night at the Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg.
No reason was given with Viacom Africa citing "unforeseen circumstances" that wasn't explained.
It left the Comedy Central Roast of AKA (real name Kiernan Forbes) with one less panellist on stage at the sold-out show that will be broadcast on 11 March on Comedy Central, with an uncensored version that will become available on 12 March on MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax.
Pierre van Pletzen was originally announced to form part of the panellists including Nigeria's Davido, Moshe Ndiki as well as Papa Penny, Joey Rasdien, Moonchild Sanelly and also including Mark Fish, Nina Hastie and Francois van Coke, with Pearl Thusi as the roastmaster.
"However, due to unforeseen circumstances, Pierre van Pletzen is unable to participate in the panel of the Comedy Central Roast of AKA," Viacom Africa said in a statement received on Thursday night before the start of the recording of the show.
