With Rhema Varrie ousted from the singing competition, Idols South Africa has turned into a battle of the sexes and provinces.
Both Mpumalanga and Limpopo Idols fans will be battling it out on the voting platforms of the competition to ensure their favourite wins.
Karabo Mogane from Mpumalanga has the backing of his whole province including high profile people such as MEC of Culture, Sport and Recreation Norah Mahlangu-Mabena, TV personality Penny Lebyane, State Security Minister David Mahlobo and more.
Mmatema Moremi on the other enjoys support not only from Limpopo but from Gauteng as well, a province she has lived in for a while, working at one of the Pretoria courts.
In her corner, the 23 year-old has music producer DJ Cleo, Polokwane Mayor Thembi Nkadimeng, member of the Mayoral Committee Johanna Kaka among others.
However, as the battle lines between the two provinces are getting obvious, social media is also adding fuel to the battle.
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, actress Zendande Mfeyana, TV personality Enhle Mbali Mlotshwa and Shonisani 'Ashifashabba' Muleya have all made their choices clear on Twitter.
Although this is a provincial war, it is also a battle for the sexes with a lot of people gunning for a black lady to finally win the singing competition after many seasons.
Rhema bowed out of the show which has seen over 60 million votes cast this season on Sunday after falling short of making it into the top 2 by just 1.2%.
Although the youngster has departed from the competition, he has received more votes than last season's top 3 combined.
"I'm sad, obviously the objective was to win the competition but I made it this far and I'm really grateful. I cannot express enough how much I appreciate all the support and the opportunity that was given to me to showcase my talent to the rest of the country," he said.
The 21 year-old hopes that someone in the music industry has noticed him as he plans of becoming a recording artist.
Although it is obvious that Rhema lost some of his voters after forgetting his lyrics during the top three performance, he remained optimistic and did not view that as his doom and gloom.
"My way of dealing with things is, I knew I had a bad performance but I still remained optimistic, I didn't tell myself that I am gonna go home. I just decided to believe in the people who support me and that people would continue doing so and keep me in the competition and not let that one blunder ruin everything.”
"But they've done what they could do, people that voted, like they said, it was missed by 1.2%. It was quite close if you look at it."
