President Emmerson Mnangagwa says his government is intending to seek assistance from South Africa in the arrest and extradition to Zimbabwe of some former Zanu PF officials, who are using social media to allegedly peddle lies about the social, economic and political situation in the country.
According to the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper, Mnangagwa, who made these remarks at a Zanu PF meeting in Gweru yesterday, said government is aware of the whereabouts of Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao and others that are currently living in South Africa.
Indications are that the government is also looking for former Information and Higher Education Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo.
He said the former Zanu PF officials, who are known to be members of the faction called Generation 40 which wanted Sydney Sekeramai to succeed the late former president Robert Mugabe before he was toppled in a defacto military coup in 2017, are allegedly working with the West to destabilize Zimbabwe.
Mnangagwa said they are facing various charges back home and as a result, they should be extradited to face the law.
He is quoted by the newspaper as saying, “So, these G40 elements peddling falsehoods and fictitious narratives about Zimbabwe, we know where they are, but we had remained silent and reluctant. But now we have an extradition treaty between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
“I am now going to give instructions to invoke this treaty so that we can extradite these elements to face the law. This is not an exception in Zimbabwe, even in America they do so, they evoke this treaty if they have a fugitive citizen they want. In Zimbabwe we have been reluctant but now we want them to come and face the law.”
The Zimbabwe Defence Force in 2017 announced that it wanted to arrest corrupt people, who were influencing Mugabe to misrule Zimbabwe. At that time, Mnangagwa had been kicked out of the government for allegedly undermining the authority of the president. He came back home a few weeks after he was sacked and became the president of Zimbabwe.