‘Don’t suffer from amnesia now’ — Inside Tito Mboweni and Fikile Mbalula’s spicy pothole exchange

Former finance minister Tito Mboweni has cursed the pothole pandemic in SA, sparking a spicy clapback by transport minister Fikile Mbalula.

It all started when Mboweni took to Twitter to vent his frustration at potholes doubling his journey time between Mbombela in Mpumalanga and Magoebaskloof in Limpopo.

“Today I drove for four hours on the R40 and R71 for four hours from Nelspruit to Magoebaskloof. A journey that should have been two hours. Why? Potholes! Sanral!”

While many could relate, and shared their stories of potholes wreaking havoc with their lives and cars, Fikile Mbalula stepped in to correct Mboweni and pledged to help.

“R40 is not maintained by Sanral, it is maintained by the province through the grant we allocate to them. We will immediately report to the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces to fix the road,” he said.

He then threw some spice the former minister’s way, telling him not to “suffer from amnesia” for “a few likes and retweets”.

“Besides you know our issues, former minister of finance. You left [them] unresolved which affects Sanral’s balance sheet. Don’t suffer from amnesia now that you have a platform to speak as a free soul for a few likes and retweets”.