WASHINGTON - Former Cabinet Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, a candidate in this year’s presidential election, says he is going back to Zimbabwe despite government threats to lock him up soon after landing in the southern African nation.
In an exclusive interview with VOA Studio 7, Kasukuwere said there is nothing that will stop him from going to Zimbabwe after almost six years of self-imposed exile.
He said, “I’m going back to Zimbabwe to participate in the elections. I’m not worried about what they will do to me. I’m determined to go back to fight for clean elections. What worries me more is the future of my country, the future of our people. All these desperate attempts to try and silence, to try and stop my coming back will come to naught. I’m ready for Zimbabwe and I will be participating in the elections in Zimbabwe and the rigging of the elections won’t happen because I will be there personally.”
Asked if he is not afraid to go back home, Kasukuwere said he is not a coward.
He said, “Why should I be afraid? I wouldn’t have taken such a decision if I was a coward. Why should I be scared of who?”
On his close links with the late former president, who ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for almost 37 years, Kasukuwere said his hands are clean.
“If someone says I was tied to (the late) President Mugabe, was Mugabe brutal, what, what … ah! How do you want me to respond to that? I never killed anybody. You know who has done it all. So, how do I become a brutal man. Why should you tie all that which happened in my country to me? In any case, when did I join government? When did I become a minister and which portfolios did I serve under? Is there evidence of me having brutalized anybody, murdered anybody?.”
Kasukuwere, fled Zimbabwe when the military toppled Mugabe and has been living in South Africa since then, once served as youth and indigenization minister. Dreaded youth militia, known as 'Green Bombers' were once under the Ministry of Youth.
He said he has a five-point plan to revitalize Zimbabwe currently hard hit by hyperinflation.
Reacting to Kasukuwere’s remarks, police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said, “We have two warrants for his arrest. He will be arrested when he lands in Zimbabwe.”
Nyathi denied that the police were being used a political tool by the ruling Zanu PF ahead of the crucial harmonized elections set for August 23.
Kasukuwere is among 11 presidential candidates, who include Mnangagwa, Nelson Chamisa, Lovemore Madhuku and others.
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