Agencies
EXILED former Cabinet minister Saviour Kasukuwere’s bid to contest for the presidential seat may not see the light of the day if a warrant of arrest issued against him is not cancelled ahead of the make or break polls.
Kasukuwere seems to have already sensed the hurdle ahead of him after dispatching a legal team to get the January 17, 2019 issued warrant cancelled.
In early 2020, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) sought extradition of Kasukuwere from South Africa but failed after Interpol claimed the issue was political.
Kasukuwere has shown his intention to challenge for the presidency.
The warrant was issued by retired Harare magistrate Hosea Mujaya after the former Cabinet minister in the late President Robert Mugabe’s administration failed to appear for trial on four counts of criminal abuse of office.
In his application, which was filed on June 2, Kasukuwere, through his lawyers, Mhishi and Nkomo Legal Practitioners, said the warrant was issued in error.
According to his lawyers, Kasukuwere appeared before Mujaya on November 29, 2018 to answer to four counts of criminal abuse of duty.
The former Cabinet minister then took exception to the charges saying they lacked essential elements of the offence of criminal abuse of duty.
Mujaya, however, dismissed the application and Kasukuwere approached the High Court for review of Mujaya’s decision.
The High Court ruled in his favour.
After upholding Kasukuwere’s application for exception, the High Court then ordered that the warrant of arrest issued by the lower court be cancelled by Mujaya who issued it.
“It is accordingly submitted that the applicant (Kasukuwere) has managed to show on a balance of probabilities that the warrant of arrest should be cancelled. It serves no purpose for it to remain in force,” Kasukuwere’s lawyers submitted.
“It was rendered void by the High Court in a judgment.”
Kasukuwere was one of the leading persons in a faction known as Generation40 (G40) during Mugabe’s era.
