PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba
yesterday said government was not in a hurry to arrest former Cabinet minister
and Zanu PF commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, who returned to Zimbabwe last week
after spending nearly six months in exile following the removal of former
President Robert Mugabe.
This came after Mnangagwa last December claimed that the
government was seeking Interpol’s help in having Kasukuwere arrested and
repatriated back to Zimbabwe, hinting at a quick prosecution, but it seems
authorities were now taking a different route, with Charamba saying there were
processes to be followed.
“If a citizen has a problem at law, the charges are raised
against him through appropriate channels and then taken to court. That is how
processes happen,” he said.
“You will start saying human rights have been violated.
“There are processes, if someone is accused of offending
against any law. The logical thing is for the aggrieved party to raise those
issues in a proper legal way.”
Critics have accused authorities of using the phrase
“criminals surrounding the President” as a smokescreen to push out Mugabe as no
reasonable charge has been preferred against the accused.
However, Charamba said there was no need to bow to pressure
of critics.
“Critics will always be with us, but justice is in fact
certain and no government is driven by critics, but driven by due processes of
law.
“The decent thing for all of us is to get to know if the
man is going to be arraigned and if so on the basis of what alleged crimes and
is he going to raise a defence, assuming that he is arraigned, that is the
logical thing.
“We don’t act because there are critics, there is no
government which is short of critics.”
Charamba said they have to take into account human rights
before rushing to arrest anyone.
“When we are talking about the rights of a citizens, it
means that we have to follow due process and I don’t know why anyone would
think the due process has not yet been followed or will not be followed or that
the person will be arraigned or not be arraigned,” he said.
“We don’t know and the logical thing is not to listen to
critics, but wait and see whether there are any charges raised against
Kasukuwere.”
Kasukuwere is part of the G40 grouping that was reportedly
angling to take over from Mugabe and shut out Mnangagwa.
When Mugabe was removed from power, soldiers allegedly
raided Kasukuwere’s home, where they fired a salvo of bullets.
He managed to escape into exile. Newsday
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