NAIROBI, Kenya, April 30- Twitter came to a standstill as enraged Kenyans turned their guns on motor mouth South Africa Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula, after his disparaging remarks on the country’s swimmers.
Moments after news filtered through the Africa National Congress (ANC) leader had said “South Africa wouldn’t be like Kenya and send athletes to the Olympics to drown in the pool,” when responding to a question, the country’s online community made the #somebodytellsouthafrica and #someonetellmbalula trend on Twitter.
The backlash made news in South Africa as the ‘Twitter war’ spilled into Wednesday although most of Mbalula’s compatriots joined the incensed Kenyans in slamming the careless gaffe in their #someonetellkenya response.
Some of the hilarious tweets from include; “@Musembi13: si u Fikilie (think) no? RT @G4Gitonga: #someonetellmbalula I’m struggling to spell his name..”
”@prince1drake #someonetellmbalula he is the reason dettol does its cleaning research in south africa”
“@Colonel_edu Having a big head does not mean you have brains in your case i think yours is for supportn your ears #someonetellmbalula”
“@Abdirashid_MM #someonetellmbalula we have @PLO_Lumumba to give him English and oratory classes for free. We are philanthropic.”
“#someonetellmbalula, #someonetellsouthafrica, our president twitter a/c @UKenyatta has 409k followers compare @SAPresident 318k followers…”
Disgusted South Africans also joined in admonishing the minister who has a history of making ‘hot-headed’ comments. ”@jamesstyan Embarrasing is when kenyans remind the SA sports minister that #nkandla cost more than the country’s olympic budget. #someonetellmbalula”
Earlier this year, the blubbering minister called South African football Bafana Bafana “a bunch of losers” after they lost against Nigeria in the African Nations Championship in South Africa before being forced to backtrack.
His nation was also not spared in the roasting as #someonetellsouthafrica trended through Tuesday evening and Wednesday with side-splitting memes added to great effect.
“#someonetellsouthafrica you guys sell gold and we win it back in marathons,” said Chrissjones, @matagarochris, on Twitter.
“@Skawd #someonetellsouthafrica Kenya athletes are enough to finish their gold mines #RETWEET @ComedyCentralKE”
“@fbosben44 #someonetellsouthafrica by virture of being south they cudn’t assist in search of Malaysian jet”
“@fndaga: #SomeoneTellSouthAfrica that our very own @Lupita_Nyongo won an #Oscar while their own #Oscar killed his girlfriend”
CNN also tweeted “The rest of twitter at a standstill as Kenyans ‘massacre’ South Africa in tweef. #SomeonetellSouthAfrica”
In a failed to fend off the backlash, the minister through his unverified handle, @MbalulaFikile responded; “The media here always blow what we say out of proportion.”
He went on, “SAs, Kenyans instead of coming up with #tags to insult each other,come up with tags to advise each other on ways to develop our continent.”
