SA Govt Official Hits Back At Prominent Zimbabwean Journalist
A prominent Zimbabwean journalist, Haru Mutasa, who works for the Qatari-based television network, Al Jazeera, has raised concerns about the high crime rate in South Africa.
Mutasa set the cat among the pigeons on Sunday night after she claimed that Zimbabwe was “the safer nation” of the two.
Posting on Twitter, Mutasa said Zimbabwe is beautiful and “does not have the high crime rate” seen in South Africa.
She also claimed that some South Africans “wrongly believe the rest of Africa is invading them”. Wrote Mutasa:
Ouch South Africans – there I said it… Compared to #Zimbabwe your crime is on another level… Fight me all you want, you know am right
But we still love you – our lovely neighbours across the border, who wrongly believe the rest of Africa is invading them… Oops – I said that…
Besides upsetting South African social media users, Mutasa’s tweet caught the attention of Clayson Monyela, the Head of Public Diplomacy at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).
Monyela noted that Mutasa had no statistical evidence to support her claims and also suggested that Zimbabwean nationals are contributing to the high crime rate in South Africa. Said Monyela:
What are you saying Haru? I’ll be a good diplomat and resist the temptation to ask you to produce credible stats from Zimbabwe to back up this tweet.
I’ll also not ask if some of your nationals are contributing to the crime in SA. Do better!
More: The South African
