Gun toting Saviour Kasukuwere and his violent past

According to a dossier compiled by the MDC-T, Kasukuwere led and sponsored most of the terror gangs that operated in Mashonaland Central. In one example, Kasukuwere, on the 5th May 2008, organized and ferried a group of over 300 youths to Chaona, Mazowe where a lot of people were seriously injured and six people were killed. The youths were wearing Kasukuwere’s campaign T- shirts.
Eight days later the same mob, led by Kasukuwere, is alleged to have been responsible for the murder of Fischer Chitese, Bright Mafuriro and Sairiro Kamufuto. On the 19th May the group struck again, killing MDC activist Phanuel Mubaira. Kasukuwere, unlike most ZANU PF chefs who simply direct the violence, has the rare distinction of actually being a willing participant in the brutality.
On the 13th April 2000 a group of 300 MDC supporters tried to hold a rally in Mt Darwin. Kasukuwere, then a parliamentary candidate in upcoming elections, ordered the police to mount roadblocks and turn back everyone attending. The defiant MDC supporters fought their way through the roadblock which was mounted by the police with help from hundreds of ZANU PF youths and war vets.
Having gone through the first roadblock and the tear gas fired by police, the MDC supporters ran into a second ambush, this time mounted by Kasukuwere and a gang of CIO operatives. Four pick-up trucks and a maroon Mercedes belonging to Kasukuwere blocked the road. The CIOs, including Kusukuwere, pulled out their pistols and began assaulting people while police officers present looked on.
A testimony from one activist called Albert said; Kasukuwere took an iron bar and began hitting my windscreen. He broke through the window and then the bar hit me on the face and when I got out of the car he hit me in the eye. I have now lost an eye. He then went to the next car and with the others they were hitting them. The windscreens and all the lights were broken.
Kasukuwere was said to be determined to attack the MDC candidate for Bindura, but an army helicopter arrived at the scene. Some MDC supporters ran into the hills but not before one of them was assaulted with an axe and later had stitches in the head.
But sometimes even the best laid plans go wrong and ironically the army ordered everyone at the scene to lie down on the road, and that included Kasukuwere.
Despite protestations by Kasukuwere that he was the ZANU PF candidate, the soldiers disarmed him and beat him up. Some 80 MDC supporters were also injured in the attack. According to the testimony given, the soldiers ordered Kasukuwere to be locked up at the police station in Bindura, but he was set free when his identity had been verified.
Kasukuwere at the time was nicknamed Paraquat for encouraging party youths to rub the poisonous herbicide onto the torture wounds of MDC activists. This meant that it was almost impossible for the wounds to ever heal and caused enormous suffering and a number of deaths. Assisting him in planning and executing the violence was his campaign manager, Terry Marodza. Most of the ZANU PF youths were housed in a building belonging to Marodza.
Even with a coalition government in place we have reported how Kasukuwere is still directing ZANU PF violence. In February this year he was fingered as the man behind the mob that engulfed Harare in chaos. He hosted a meeting at his house where a plan was hatched to send party youths onto the streets to demand empowerment. With the help of a police escort they went on the rampage, looting and pillaging downtown Harare.