Presidential candidate Saviour Kasukuwere on Thursday hinted at seeking SADC protection from vengeful Zimbabwean authorities as he announced a slew of promises to the electorate while launching his ambitious bid for the top job.

The 52-year-old, who has been holed up in South Africa since 2018, was addressing journalists a day after he filed his nomination papers through a representative in Harare.

He said he plans to return to Zimbabwe soon to campaign ahead of general elections on August 23.

He admitted booking a flight to Harare from Johannesburg on June 21 as a decoy to test the response of authorities. A flight manifest with his name leaked online.

“We have to take security issues into consideration. We don’t board the plane and just rock up without doing some preparatory work,” he said.

“We did exactly that to see the reaction and very interesting results came our way.”

Kasukuwere, who served as youth minister and later local government minister, was forced into exile following Robert Mugabe’s November 2017 ouster as president by the military.

He is demanding to be allowed to campaign freely.

“We trust now that we are in the election period, you can’t weaponise institutions against your opponents,” he said about President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded Mugabe. “I am sure this is an election that everybody wants to proceed smoothly so that the outcome is uncontested so that we allow our country to be back on the international stage and we the participants and contestants are all able to say this was a good election; we had a good fight but at the end of the day, we are still brothers and sisters.”

The former Zanu-PF political commissar said he was going to take the necessary precaution to ensure his own safety when he eventually returns to Zimbabwe.

“So yes, we are concerned, we are still very concerned and we will be raising these issues with relevant authorities. We have our Southern African Development Committee (SADC) body, we have the monitoring teams that will be coming to our country, it’s important that every contestant is protected and secure,” he said.

The once powerful politician said he was going to hire buses for Zimbabweans based in South Africa to travel home and cast their ballots.

“We are going to be arranging about 500 buses or so to transport Zimbabweans to come and vote in the next elections. Secondly, Dr (Walter) Mzembi has a very able team which he is working with to create a database of Zimbabweans from various stations in life to bring forward their ideas and hopefully to be part and parcel of those who will be able to come in and jump-start our economy,” he said.

As part of his plans, Kasukuwere said he intends to address the Gukurahundi atrocities which have been parked by the Zanu-PF-led government for nearly 40 years.

“Post-independence violence in the Matebeleland region, we need to be sincere, engage and bury our differences. We can’t adopt an ostrich mentality; you hide your head and you think people can’t see you,” he said.

“You have to be genuine so that people come forward and we all work in one direction.”

To entice voters, Kasukuwere also promised – if voted into power – to create employment opportunities, reform state institutions, grow the economy, fight corruption, among other things.

He promised to harness Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth to drive new investments in infrastructure development, including building new roads, power stations and revamping the rail network.

The politician was in the company of former tourism and foreign minister Walter Mzembi, another of the exiled former Mugabe allies who is now assisting him with his campaign for the country’s top job. He described Mzembi as his “running mate.”