Fikile vs Ace: It's getting awks

The ANC head of elections Fikile Mbalula and the party's secretary-general Ace Magashule have been taking shots at each other for a while now.

The sour relationship between the two goes way back. Here's a breakdown of the beef.

The lead-up

In mid-2017, Mbalula tweeted and later deleted: "Ace Magashule is a definite no no no, the man will finish what is remaining of our movement. He will kill it.”

Gangster state

Ahead of this year's elections Mbalula said that prominent political figures implicated in corruption must be condemned.

Speaking to Eusebius McKaiser on Talk Radio 702 in April, Mbalula said that while political leaders such as the party's secretary-general Magashule have been implicated in state capture, they must be found guilty in the court of law, as SA is a law-abiding society.

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Verbal lashing

On Friday Magashule hit back at Mbalula for saying the ANC would have scored less than 40% of the votes if President Cyril Ramaphosa was not elected in 2017.

Magashule said people were voting for the ANC and not individuals.

"That's nonsense, people are electing the ANC. It's not about any individual. How do you predict that? Is Comrade Mbalula saying I was not going to be part of the campaign if the leader was somebody else?" Magashule asked.

However, Mbalula did not take Magashule's remarks lying down, saying the ANC secretary-general was not responding to him but to a "figment of his imagination".

Of course the swipes have not gone unnoticed by social media.