HARARE – Iron-willed ex-cabinet minister and presidential hopeful, Saviour Kasukuwere filed his nomination papers through his lawyer Wednesday while keeping his whereabouts secret.
The exiled former Zanu PF political commissar revealed his presidential ambitions a couple of years back with few expecting him to execute the plan right to the end.
But the one-time ally to late former President Robert Mugabe finally made the most unambiguous charge for the country’s top job through his lawyer and chief election adviser, Jacqueline Sande.
Kasukuwere who is contesting as an independent, will be hoping to entice remnants of Mugabe’s support base that has found it hard to accept the former leader’s successor Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Speaking to journalists outside the Harare High Court, venue for the nomination court for presidential candidates, Sande said the spirited politician will avail himself in person for what is sure to become a grueling campaign.
“The nomination itself has been accepted as of now.
“His whereabouts, I cannot divulge but he going to be available to campaign for himself because as you know as a presidential candidate, you need to hit the ground running and to meet the electorate and sell them your ideology, proposals and get them to vote for you.
“So, he is not going to campaign outside the country; he is going to be around,” Sande said.
Kasukuwere was hounded out of the country November 2017 when the country’s military held Mugabe and family incommunicado and pressured the Zimbabwe dictator to dump his job in what would later become probably the world’s ambiguous coup.
The once powerful politician would later return to Zimbabwe in 2018 but soon discovered he over-estimated Mnangagwa’s forgiveness when the Zimbabwe strongman’s government soon opened criminal charges against him.
He skipped the country again for his sanctuary in South Africa.
His many charges were later quashed by Zimbabwean courts.
