State security agents interrogated former Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere’s brother, on the day government claimed there were people spreading rumours of an “imminent coup”.
Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe told journalists that Kasukuwere, known as Tyson during his time in Zanu PF, who skipped the country after soldiers allegedly tried to kill him and his family during the 2017 coup, was among people peddling the coup rumours.
The former Zanu PF commissar’s brother Dickson Mafios was arrested as he left Harare Polytechnic alongside Rushinga MP Wonder Mashange, where they were on quarantine after a recent trip to South Africa.
The two, who are members of the opposition National Patriotic Front, made up largely of G40 members that were targeted during the coup against former president Robert Mugabe, were released without charges being laid against them.
Their passports were allegedly confiscated by the police “to check with immigration officers”.
Although both Mafios and Mashange refused to comment on their arrest, well-placed sources revealed the two were taken to the police’s law and order section.
The pair was later moved to Braeside Police Station after the police allegedly said they had nothing to do with their arrest.
At Braeside, they were reportedly grilled by Central Intelligence Organisation agents who wanted to know why they were in South Africa, and what they were “plotting” with Kasukuwere.
“They were grilled on Kasukuwere’s whereabouts, where he stays, his movements, his contacts in government as well as in the military,” the source disclosed.
“They were released later, but without their passports, with the CIO agents saying they wanted to check something with the immigration department.
“Throughout the interrogation, Mashange was asking the police and CIOs if he was under arrest, and was told that they only wanted to talk to them, and they were not under arrest.”
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi was not answering his mobile phone yesterday.