Inside Robert Marawa & Ntsiki Mazwai’s spicy exchange over Kobe Bryant

As the world continues to mourn the death of basketball star Kobe Bryant and celebrate his life, Kobe's legacy was at the centre of a heated war of words between poet Ntsiki Mazwai and sports presenter Robert Marawa. 

Kobe was killed in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant and seven other people on Sunday morning.

Basketball enthusiasts and ordinary people alike, took to their different platforms to celebrate what Kobe's life represented to them, with the exception of Ntsiki.

In what can only be described as one of her “woke” Twitter vents, the poet felt that South Africans should hold back on “mourning” the American sports star. She reasoned that Americans didn't “care as much” about South Africans and therefore South Africans should return the favour.

However, Robert told the poet she should catch up on the facts about Kobe and his legacy, before going  on a Twitter rant.

“Aunty kahle kancane.....Go read about Basketball Without Borders which has for years been helping to build homes & communities in SA since 1st arriving here with Patrick Ewing initially,” Rob tweeted.

Ntsiki went on to throw a jab at Robert for “defending” Americans, saying they apparently won't celebrate him when he dies.

But Robert wasn't fazed.

“Neva asked for my corpse to be celebrated by u, Americans, Chinese or Afghans. Just requesting you to be informed when u attempt to discredit successful human beings and global icons!” Rob hit back.