Former cabinet minister and Zanu PF’s political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, has appeared in court facing charges of border jumping.
Kasukuwere, a loyalist of former president Robert Mugabe, was granted $300 bail when he appeared before a local magistrate.
He left the country last November before Mugabe resigned under pressure from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, which staged a defacto military coup that resulted in Emmerson Mnangagwa becoming Zimbabwe’s president.
According to the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Kasukuwere was arrested early Friday morning.
Kasukuwere fled the country with former Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao and several other people who were linked to the so-called Generation 40 faction of the ruling Zanu PF party that wanted former First Lady Grace Mugabe to succeed her 94 year-old husband.
Kasukuwere returned home saying he is not a common criminal as being alleged by the state while Moyo and Zhuwao are still in exile.
The military intervened under the so-called Operation Restore Order in which they wanted to arrest “criminals” that were said to be surrounding Mugabe.
The former president maintains that he was removed through a violent military coup. However, Mnangagwa, the African Union and Southern African Development Community claim that the military had a right to intervene in the Zimbabwe crisis.