BULAWAYO – FORMER Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere insists he has no fear of returning to Zimbabwe, after a newspaper report suggested he was wanted by the police.
Kasukuwere, who smuggled himself out of Zimbabwe using an undesignated exit point in November last year when a military-led coup against President Robert Mugabe was underway, returned to the country in May.
“Life takes you to unexpected places, love brings you home.” I landed at RGM International Airport after 6 months away from our beloved land. Thank you to all those who prayed for and stood with me. Your well wishes are greatly appreciated. God bless you, and Zimbabwe ??
— Hon S Kasukuwere (@Hon_Kasukuwere) May 23, 2018
He was arrested and charged for immigration violations, but was acquitted by a magistrate who concurred with defence arguments that his life was in danger after hearing how soldiers had unloaded their guns at his house in Borrowdale.
The former Zanu PF political commissar left the country again on June 25, and days after police reportedly went to his house looking for him.
This week, The Daily News, citing unnamed police sources, claimed Kasukuwere was a “person of interest to the police”. The newspaper suggested Kasukuwere would be spoken to over the June 23 grenade explosion at Bulawayo’s White City Stadium where President Emmerson Mnangagwa is thought to have been the target of an assassination attempt.
Kasukuwere, who announced in May he had retired from politics, insists he is on an extended business trip and has no issues with authorities in Zimbabwe.
He had left Robert Mugabe International Airport on a regular flight and would return the same way, he said.
“It’s all nonsense,” he told ZimLive.com by phone on Thursday. “These people are on a little frolic of their own and I don’t think you should pay too much attention to them.”
Kasukuwere was a key ally of former President Mugabe.
In the wake of the bomb attack, Mnangagwa said his “hunch without facts” was that it had been executed by Mugabe loyalists.
Police investigating the blast have so far drawn blanks. Russian investigators joined the probe and concluded that the explosive device used was a Russian-made offensive grenade, commonly used by the Zimbabwe military.
