Pearl Thusi and Bonnie Mbuli get into a heated war of words over colourism

Pearl Thusi and Bonnie Mbuli found themselves on the Twitter trends list on Thursday after trading blows in a spicy twar over colourism.

Pearl was the talk of Mzansi earlier this week when she clapped back at a hater, who called her talentless and suggested that she only gets top gigs because she is light skinned.

Pearl's lengthy rant about being discriminated against because of her complexion sparked a massive debate online and at water coolers across SA.

While several celebs weighed in on the matter, Bonnie soon found herself in the spotlight for her remarks.

Along with a meme Bonnie posted a message, saying she "almost" sympathised with light-skinned girls going through the most. She then shared another meme with a more direct message about light-skinned actresses, which many saw as a reference to Pearl's claim that she had lost out on roles to darker-skinned women.

"So when a light-skinned actress complains about the one or two roles they didn’t get because they weren’t dark enough, I’m like but the part your crying about was being the slave who gets raped and beat up in the thing, people who look like you have never had to be in that position to begin with," Bonnie wrote.

Bonnie went on to claim, in a response to a follower, that there were far fewer roles for dark-skinned women, and these were often roles as sufferers, diseased or slaves.

Pearl responded to Bonnie's tweets by asking about her international career and telling Bonnie to stop spreading "negativity".

"You have absolutely no clue which other parts I didn't get, but because it makes you feel better to believe my acting career is working out only because I'm light skinned. And for someone who survived depression and wrote a book about it you sure love spreading negativity," Pearl added.

Pearl challenged Bonnie to call her up directly to speak about the issues she had and offered to get her in touch with her agent for roles beyond what Bonnie said dark-skinned actresses were given.

Bonnie responded by claiming that the debate was not about Pearl and the actress should not place herself at the centre of it.

"Enough with the martyrdom Pearl, I was talking about actresses, angaz’ ukhuthi ungenaphi!" she added.

Pearl acknowledged that colourism is real, but said she would not apologise for who she is or be bullied because of it. 

"Colourism is real guys. I have dark-skinned family members. I saw it happen in my own home. It sucks. But please don't blame me for it. Help me be part of the solution. I will not let you think my skin tone means I'm a target for your bullying. I will fight back. Count on that," she tweeted.

She also slammed actresses who were upset about her getting roles and those who had reduced her to a "nameless 'light-skinned actress'".

She also called out Bonnie for telling a critic to sit down during the debate.

Meanwhile, Pearl Thusi's bestie, DJ Zinhle, again defended her friend, while also expressing her concern for how her daughter, Kairo, will be treated because of her light complexion.