Online tabloid ZimLive has provided a leaked copy of a letter which Mutodi wrote to Moyo, who said in a statement released to state media on Monday that Mutodi\u2019s comments made on Twitter \u201cdo not reflect the government\u2019s position nor policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith due respect to your highly regarded office, I wish to remind you that our two ministries operate on a divergent yet complimentary role, with your foreign affairs ministry outward looking while my information ministry is inward,\u201d Mutodi wrote to Moyo in a May 12 letter.<\/p>\n
Mutodi said his tweet which praised President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, while appearing to mock Tanzania\u2019s, was designed for the Zimbabwean voter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile my ministry is worried about the public perception on the national leadership, its image, electability and the public approval ratings of the president, your ministry focuses on foreign cooperation and diplomatic engagement, otherwise our two ministries should have been merged if they served the same purpose,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Moyo called a meeting with information minister Monica Mutsvangwa and information secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana on Wednesday to explain his actions.<\/p>\n
The foreign minister told Mutsvangwa and Mangwana that he was forced into issuing the statement after the Tanzanian embassy in Harare raised objections to Mutodi\u2019s May 4 tweet, which he had not deleted by Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Mutodi had tweeted: \u201cHis Excellency John Pombe Magafuli\u2019s Tanzania now has 630 Covid-19 cases with prayers but without a lockdown, while His Excellency President E.D. Mnangagwa\u2019s Zimbabwe only got 31 cases with a lockdown and masks. An insight into how managers can be game changers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moyo publicly censured Mutodi, saying in his statement: \u201cEach government is implementing policies that best suit their unique domestic environments in line with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO)\u2026 In this context, there was no basis whatsoever to compare the policies of the two presidents.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his letter to Moyo, Mutodi maintains that the fallout could have been contained without going public \u2013 and exposing the government to public ridicule.<\/p>\n
He claims in his letter that he was right to draw the contrast because the World Bank was initially critical of Zimbabwe and South Africa\u2019s response to the coronavirus outbreak, while praising Tanzania.<\/p>\n
In the United States, President Donald Trump has described the virus as a \u201cChinese virus\u201d, but members of his cabinet who may have reservations about the description have not objected in public, Mutodi went on.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour public statement, which could have been sufficiently dealt with by a diplomatic correspondence to the Tanzanian embassy, if it mattered, has divided public opinion, first on the definition and meaning of government and whether you had become its Prime Minister in charge of the two ministries,\u201d Mutodi added in his stinging letter to Moyo.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Mutodi declined to comment on his letter, but minutes after our enquiry, he wrote on Twitter: \u201cLiving in fear of the Chris Mutsvangwa-SB Moyo coalition. I hope it won\u2019t resort to wartime tactics. Appealing for prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Mutsvangwa is the husband of Mutodi\u2019s boss, Monica Mutsvangwa. Relations between Mutodi and Monica Mutsvangwa are reportedly strained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Online tabloid ZimLive has provided a leaked copy of a letter which Mutodi wrote to Moyo, who said in a statement released to state media on Monday that Mutodi\u2019s comments made on Twitter \u201cdo not reflect the government\u2019s position nor policy.\u201d \u201cWith due respect to your highly regarded office, I wish to remind you that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":16611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[764,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-23112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-khaya-moyo","10":"tag-mutodi"},"yoast_head":"\n