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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
zanu-pf candidate for Harare South constituency Cde Tongai Mnangagwa has reached out to former rivals in the just-ended primary elections to work together to ensure a resounding election victory for the revolutionary party in the July 30 harmonised elections.

In an interview after filing his nomination papers at the Harare Magistrates Courts last Thursday, Cde Mnangagwa said he had approached some of the losing primary election candidates whom he described as his “seniors in the party”, so that they could work together.

These include war veteran Cde Douglas Mahiya, Cde Learnard Tarwirei and Cde Tonderayi Nkomo.

“I am in process of reaching out to them,” said Cde Mnangagwa, who was officially unveiled by Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga (Retired) during a campaign rally last week in the area.

“Most of them are my seniors and obviously I have a lot to learn from them. It will be good for us to move around together in the constituency holding campaign rallies together.”

Cde Mnangagwa said it was critical that party cadres worked together to register an election victory for the ruling party.

“Indeed, I am quite confident that I will win, but we are also working on numbers,” he said.

“I would obviously need the services of Cde Mahiya and Cde Nkomo, among others. It is important for us to realise that those people who voted for them in the primary election belong to zanu-pf, so it is now time to work together to achieve a common objective, that is ensuring that President Mnangagwa is retained into office.”

Cde Mnangagwa said he derived confidence from the large crowd that welcomed VP Chiwenga in Hopley when he came for a rally to drum up support both for him and President Mnangagwa.

“We managed to mobilise a lot of people and that is quite encouraging,” he said. “I am now ready for the election now that I was nominated to represent zanu-pf in the forthcoming election.”