Malema and Ntsiki at war as he calls her a ‘failed poet’ and ‘pretentious mole’

An unexpected Twitter war erupted on Sunday night between EFF leader and poet Ntsiki Mazwai, with neither of them pulling their punches.

In an apparent reaction to a tweet in which Mazwai said she would “pass” on the EFF if the party was dominated by Malema, he told her he didn’t need an endorsement from any “failed poet”.

He told her that at least he was good at what he does, politics, unlike her and her poetry.

Mazwai had clearly touched a nerve when she said it was clear to her Malema was not a black consciousness adherent and that the EFF had created too much of a cult of personality around him.

She said she believed in the movement and not individuals.

The comments from both of them were especially surprising given that Mazwai had performed on stage for the EFF at their Africa Day rally in May. Mazwai shared a screenshot of a direct message she had received from Malema on the day in which he said he “enjoyed her performance”, which would appear to have belied his insult that she is a “failed poet”.

Malema, however, was having none of that either, and kept the tweets against her coming. He explained that he had thanked all the performers in the same way and that he had merely been showing respect and it should not have been taken as a sign of blind loyalty.

He was clearly tired of people who continually wrote about him “as if Julius is your job description”.

He said he didn’t need her or her friends. Malema added in other tweets that he saw Mazwai as a “wannabe” supporter and later even implied that she was a “pretentious mole”. He said the EFF would be led by capable women “with proper emotional intelligence”.

As if to underline the fact that he considered the twar over, he shared a video of people dancing and having a good time.

Not one to back down, Mazwai’s timeline on Sunday was littered with her and her supporters making references to why Malema went to England to meet with Lord Robin Renwick, which many have often alleged was evidence of him “selling out” to rich white people.

There were also numerous references to what they perceived as his other failings.

At the time of writing, Mazwai, who said in a tweet that she was “stunned” by Malema’s “overreaction”, still had a video of her EFF performance on Africa Day as her pinned tweet on her timeline, though one wonders how much longer it’s likely to remain there.