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Exiled former ZANU PF political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, has thrown his weight behind journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, who is currently incarcerated at Chikurubi Maximum Prison.
Chin’ono was arrested and charged on allegations of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
Kasukuwere openly sympathised with Chin’ono, who has taken the Second Republic to task over its anti-corruption stance, which seems to be selective.
“We pray for you, Hopewell. Your pain is our pain, remain strong my brother,” Kasukuwere said when Chin’ono appeared for his bail appeal hearing at the High Court in Harare yesterday.
Chin’ono maintains that President Mnangagwa’s regime is persecuting him for speaking out against corruption using his journalistic licence and that he has no case to answer on the current charges.
His lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told Justice Tawanda Chitapi that magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa, who denied him bail at the Magistrates court, grossly misdirected herself when she denied him freedom by asserting that he had a propensity to commit offences.
Kasukuwere, considered a G40 kingpin, is wanted by President Mnangagwa’s government to answer to a list of charges, among them de-campaigning the country.
This follows recommendations by the Committee on National Peace and Reconciliation for the enactment of a law that advocates for political parties to be placed under a uniform code of conduct that bans hate speech and makes campaigning against Zimbabwe a criminal offence.
Government has asked South Africa to hand over the former Cabinet minister to Zimbabwe to answer to four more counts of criminal abuse of duty as a public officer.
These arose when Kasukuwere was Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister when he is alleged to have corruptly parcelled out over 220 hectares of land in Harare and Masvingo to Shuvai Gumbochuma, former First Lady Grace Mugabe’s sister.
However, Kasukuwere has scoffed at the Mnangagwa administration’s efforts by stating that the allegations were politically motivated.
Also, there is no formal extradition agreement between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Prosecutor-General Kumbirai Hodzi has said the request for mutual legal assistance from South Africa in this extradition case would be based on the Extradition (Designated Countries) Order of 1990.
Kasukuwere insists that he is innocent and that Mnangagwa’s administration is, in fact, illegal.
“The bone of contention is that we contend that the takeover of ZANU PF [in 2017] was illegal, it was a coup, and then the usurpation of power by Emmerson was itself a fully-fledged military coup … The rule-of-law has been thrown into the junkyard and Emmerson does whatever he wants.”
Justice Chitapi is tomorrow, Friday November 20, expected to hand down a full judgment on Chin’ono’s request for bail.
Nhau/Indaba
