these galaxies were retrieved from the SDSS DR12 [@Alam2015]. We further restricted the SALT sample to only include pairs where either the BCG or companion (in each pair) had a SDSS spectroscopic redshift $(z_{\mathrm{spec}})$. SALT observations were used to determine the remaining galaxy’s $z_{\mathrm{spec}}$ to determine whether the galaxies are potential merger candidates or not. Only 16 of the close pairs satisfied these criteria. Twelve pairs were successfully observed over two semesters spanning 2013 November - 2014 April (proposal ID: 2013-2-RSA-008, PI: Groenewald) and 2014 May - October (proposal ID: 2014-1-RSA\_OTH-009, PI: Groenewald).

### Observations and reductions

Using the Robert Stobie Spectrograph [RSS; @Burgh2003; @Kobulnicky2003] on SALT we obtained longslit spectroscopy for the close pairs. A slit with a width of $2\arcsec$ was centred on the BCG in each pair and aligned in such a way that both the BCG and companion were observed in a single observation. This allowed us to determine the relative velocities between these two galaxies using the same wavelength calibration. The RSS observations used the PG900 grating which covers the main optical features that we are interested in over $4500 - 7500$ Å. Each close pair in the SALT sample was observed for a total 