JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu sarcastically thanked South African President Thabo Mbeki for calling him a liar, the BBC reported Monday.
The two men have been verbally jabbing each other for a week after Tutu said in a speech the African National Congress government's policy of black empowerment was only benefiting "a small elite that tends to be recycled."
Mbeki hit back Friday in his weekly online column for the ANC, saying the archbishop had never been a member of the party and had "very little knowledge" of how the ANC worked.
Monday, in a statement, Tutu fired back.
"Thank you Mr. President for telling me what you think of me, that I am a liar with scant regard for the truth and a charlatan posing with his concern for the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the voiceless," Tutu wrote.
He also said he would pray for Mbeki, just as he had done for the apartheid regime.
